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Fun Operating Systems

Started by cozman Aug 1, 2005 at 7:07 PM 17 replies 4.7k views

Original Post

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:07 PM

I recently screwed up my laptop and decided I would use the opportunity to play with a few operating systems. I'm not really looking for a new operating system to use all the time, just something that'd be fun to play around with. I've tried about 8 flavours of linux, FreeBSD, and Windows XP. I run Ubuntu on my main machine and so a relatively standard linux distro isn't going to be a big change for me. Basically I'd like to try something that is somewhat different from any OS I've ever used, it's ok if it's not too stable or practical, I'm just interested in seeing what's out there and figured some people on here might have some good suggestions.

Lode

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:12 PM

Make a Linux From Scratch, they say you can learn a lot from it, I'm planning to try it once I'm a bit more experienced in Linux. Having a laptop not used for anything else for this seems like the perfect tool for it.

I also heard something about Minix, the OS that inspired Linus to make Linux, and is an educational OS with very "simple" source code.

doynax

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:16 PM

How about QNX? It may not be all that special but it's kinda fun to play around with a realtime system for a change..
Try VMS if you can get your hands on an Alpha (or even VAX) machine.

Promit

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:19 PM

BeOS, perhaps? Dragonfly and PC BSD are on my list of OSes to try. Also there's OSX, although that can be a bit more difficult. And Darwin x86...Solaris x86...ReactOS...

Benjamin Heath

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:33 PM

Well, I got tired of installing all these operating systems on my computer; I decided to try something new. So, I up and installed some on my brain.

It's been fine so far and...

oh jesus...

Ainokea

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:38 PM

BeOS, the power of linux and the usability of windows. Now all it needs is better driver support and more applications. But seriously it is really cool.

Luctus

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:44 PM

I recently found out about an operating system called "Plane 9" (and yes, it's supposedly named after the Ed Wood movie). From what I've heard it's made by some of the same people who made unix and wanted to "fix" the things that went wrong with unix. It's been said that it has some good ideas in there, but from what I've gathered though, it's a dead project.

I haven't used it myself, but it sounds like it could be fun to try for a while.

mutex

Aug 1, 2005 at 7:46 PM

Have you tried GoboLinux? Programs are installed to their own directories instead of sharing /etc, /usr, and others. I had problems getting some things to work last time I tried it a long time ago, but it's an interesting and IMO more sensible concept.

MrWeet

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:22 PM

SkyOs. Looks pretty neat.

Flarelocke

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:25 PM

Obscure OS's:
AtheOS
Haiku
House

That's all I can think of right now.

kingnosis

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:37 PM

Have you tried Gentoo Linux?

I've actually had a lot of fun going over all the details of my own system. If that's what you mean by something to "play around with", then you might like it, if you're into that sort of thing.[grin]

Roboguy

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:49 PM

Quote:
Original post by Flarelocke
Obscure OS's:
AtheOS
Haiku
House

That's all I can think of right now.

Hasn't AtheOS been superseded by Syllable?

cozman

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:52 PM

Thanks for all the cool ideas, I've checked most of them out now and I think I'll end up trying three or four of them. I've fooled around a bit with Gentoo and Solaris before, AtheOS, Gobo and LFS are probably my top three picks. SkyOS looks neat but I don't really want to spend any money on this whole thing.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

jfclavette

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:56 PM

LFS looks like a heavily concentrated dose of unbearable pain to me. Seriously.

Cypher19

Aug 1, 2005 at 8:56 PM

Make an OS in Brainfuck!

Flarelocke

Aug 1, 2005 at 9:34 PM

Quote:
Original post by Roboguy
Quote:
Original post by Flarelocke
Obscure OS's:
AtheOS
Haiku
House

That's all I can think of right now.

Hasn't AtheOS been superseded by Syllable?

According to the about page of Syllable, it's a fork of AtheOS. I do seem to recall something about that. I think they forked because the original maintainer wasn't accepting enough input about the future direction of development and didn't have enough megalomania (he wanted to keep on working on his little pet project, and didn't pay enough attention to his users).

Ravuya

Aug 1, 2005 at 10:09 PM

Syllable is awesome. Also try BeOS (or Yellowtab Zeta). In addition, ReactOS is making some serious headway.

I believe there is also a port of the modern AmigaOS to the IA32 architecture; if you can track down a copy of that it's a rather nice OS. I haven't used it since Workbench 3.1 so I have no idea if they actually have memory protection now.

Zorak

Aug 2, 2005 at 2:21 AM

FreeBSD. You will not go back.

exoskeletal_ninja

Aug 2, 2005 at 7:51 AM

Try this little gem out. Boots from a floppy, has a GUI and all sorts of gear.

Menuet OS!

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