Re: <nettime> the ultimate OS

[Florian Cramer <paragram@gmx.net>]

On Thu, Dec 24, 1998 at 03:24:57PM -0800, Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote:

>    This article proposes a radically new kind of operating system and
>    software style that includes what I consider to be the best features
>    of all existing operating systems created to date as well as many new
>    innovations. It is based on ideas and inspirations I have collected
>    over many years and have finally written up here. (I am motivated
>    especially by recent events regarding the leaked Microsoft "Halloween
>    memos" and the ensuing controversy and debate; I hope to add a
>    substantial new angle.)

I suggest you

* post your announcement to a forum populated by technically savvy readers
such as slashdot.org

* produce at least some minimal working code before you publish your
announcement

Although I am not an OS developer, it seems to me as if your project is
flawed in that it reinvents the wheel. The distributed object model you
sketch already exists as an open cross-plattform standard with countless
functional implementations, i.e. CORBA. Both the Gnome and KDE desktops
for Linux and other Unix-like OSs have CORBA-based object architectures,
with Gnome pushing the concept to its limits. 

There have been/there are numerous free OS development projects with lofty
goals - the "Freedows" project with its "cache kernel", the "KOS" or
"Kommunity OS" - which all gave up sooner or later because they didn't get
any code done. It's certainly understandable that many developers don't
get enough gratification out of projects concerned with free
implementations of existing tried-and-tested software technology (which
holds true for Linux and the free BSDs). On the other hand, since there
already are projects pursuing 'cutting edge' OS concepts in promising
fashion - see GNU Hurd -, I would be glad if you risk a glance at them and
maybe throw in your lot before you start something else from scratch. 

But since my primary interest is fictions, I appreciate your concept from
a literary viewpoint. In that respect, my favorite OS

Some "virtual OS" links

AIOS ("Artificial Intelligence OS"): http://www.blkbox.com/~cravey/aois
AROS: http://aros.fh-konstanz.de/aros/ Freedows 98:
http://www.freedows.org Grasshopper OS:
http://www.gh.cs.su.oz.au/Grasshopper/index.html Jeni OS (a project new
Unix clone): http://www.jenios.com

Unfortunately, I can't find the URL of my favourite OS project - an OS
which claims to combine the best aspects of Unix, Mac, NeXT, BeOS and
Windows and do even better, but whose agenda solely consists in
elaborating its description on a Web page in the hope that others, if at
all, will do the coding. 

Florian

-- 
Florian Cramer <paragram@gmx.net>, PGP public key ID 6440BA05
Permutations/Permutationen combinatory poetry site: 
<http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~cantsin/index.cgi>

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