Obscure operating systems...

[Vetus]

Anyone here using PC-BSD 8.1, GhostBSD, AnonymOS, (Amnesiac) Incognito, eComStation 2.0, Syllable 0.6.5, ReactOS 0.3.12, Haiku, or MenuetOS? I'm planning on trying these, and would like to hear of users' experiences (good or bad). Thanks.

[BSDfan666]

Of the ones you listed, the following are simply specialized redistribution's.. maintained or otherwise, using them instead is of debatable benefit.

• PC-BSD is just a desktop distribution of FreeBSD, same goes for GhostBSD.
• AnonymOS is a apparently an ancient OpenBSD 3.x fork, which is not maintained.
• Amnesic Incognito is some partially maintained LiveCD Linux distribution.

Now as for the others, they are much smaller projects with few resources and typically not suitable as a desktop OS replacement.

• eComStation is technically IBM's OS/2 operating system, re-branded & re-licensed, slightly modernized with some UI improvements and some extra drivers/utilities.
• Syllable is a hobby project, based on a now defunct project, it hasn't really received much attention in recent years.. they've been focusing most of their effort on their server oriented Linux distribution.
• ReactOS is older, it has been around for many years.. but it's not really stable yet, it's a re-implementation of Windows NT, it's still missing a lot of things and they're constantly trying to catch up to a moving target (..Windows), it's still considered "pre-Alpha".
• Haiku is a MIT licensed BeOS clone, it's actually fairly stable, but they also haven't put out a "stable" release yet.. the lack of drivers and software make it still somewhat unusable.
• MenuetOS is a hobby project, it has been around for a few years, but they wrote it entirely in assembler.. drivers and applications will always be a problem for this project.

Trying out alternative OS's is definitely something interesting to do in your spare time, but very little have the stability to be used for daily activities.. in the open source world the BSD projects and Linux have achieved the most.

[J65nko]

If you really want to use some interesting you should try Plan 9, the successor OS for UNIX from Bell Labs. . See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs

[rocket357]

Originally Posted by BSDfan666

[*]it's a re-implementation of Windows NT, it's still missing a lot of things and they're constantly trying to catch up to a moving target (..Windows), it's still considered "pre-Alpha".

ReactOS has no hope. It's a clone of crap (Windows). =D

All joking aside, I've tried ReactOS, and well...it's definitely "pre-Alpha". You can't really use it for anything serious...at least not a year or so ago when I last tried it.

[BSDfan666]

Absolutely, it's simply a difficult task.. they've been tackling it for decades and it's still nowhere near usable, assuming you would ever want to use a Windows-like OS.

@J65nko, IMHO, Plan 9 went in the wrong direction.. it's so unlike Unix that it simply seems unappealing on so many levels.

Take this comparison of Plan 9 and Unix, it just makes me feel dirty.

[IdOp]

A year or two ago I wanted to try Haiku, but couldn't find a reasonable server to download it from ... maybe it was my incompetence, or their lack or resources, or things may have changed by now.

[Gerard]

PC-BSD isn't that obscure ;-)

It's a pity BeOS died. I'd like to give Haiku a try when development matures a bit.

[roddierod]

I have Haiku running in VirtualBox. I like it and it preforms nicely, but as BSDfan said the lack of drivers and software hold it back.

[marcolino]

Originally Posted by roddierod

I have Haiku running in VirtualBox. I like it and it preforms nicely, but as BSDfan said the lack of drivers and software hold it back.

Coincidentally, and unfortunately, the same was true of its predecessor, BeOS.

[Carpetsmoker]

Even for not-so-obscure operating systems like the BSD family this is a problem ... It is unfortunate, but I don't expect this to change anytime soon ...

[dan]

I think that for syllable and haiku the interface you face at the command line will probably be the gnu tools (so will look, formally at least, like linux or bsd). And of course as several have said you may have trouble with drivers, so you'll be constrained on your hardware.

Also, as a small correction to the summary that BSDfan666 made, i believe that the syllable server based on linux is not being pursued right now (that's what i heard from them a few months ago, although if somebody wants to work on it they're a friendly crowd and would probably welcome submissions).

However, i think the potential advantage that haiku and syllable offer is that their guis are not based on nor layered on top of X11, but rather are based on some systematic framework with a standard API and look-and-feel.

In other words, the approach would be much more like the Mac or the Amiga (and how is Aros doing, btw?).

That's why the syllable server based on linux would have been so good: you would have all the drivers and stability of linux, but without X11.

And i wonder, is there any free version of BSD or linux which comes with some GUI besides X11? For the BSD side at least, the Mac should be a very strong proof-of-concept.

[BSDfan666]

I wasn't aware that they were back to focusing on their own OS again, apologies.

As for alternative GUI's, the problem of drivers is magnified exponentially by that.. there isn't usually anything besides basic VESA modesetting and it's usually quite slow compared to X with userland drivers.

I know that both Syllable and Haiku lack all but basic 2D capabilities (..both have ports of SDL I believe, but no OpenGL).

Don't get me wrong, I have very little use for OpenGL myself.. I've used OpenBSD primarily for years which only had software acceleration with Mesa, but the direction went with these OS's mean 3D drivers/libraries will have to be explicitly written.

[Vetus]

After reading your replies (and further google research), I decided to abandon most of this avenue. I will now focus on trial of Linux Mint 7, Ultimate Edition 2.0, Browser Linux 400b5, & PC-BSD 8.1; plus some live CD type operating systems (GhostBSD, AnonymOS, Incognito, etc.). Thanks for helping me to not waste anymore time on 'not-ready-for-primetime' OSs! Oh yeah, if anyone knows anthing about 'Fortress Linux' (not already mentioned on its site), please advise...I'm seeking 'system requirements', 'hardware compatibility list', 'release notes', etc., and also like to find out if its based on any other distro.

[Randux]

Didn't anonymos die right after it first came out like 10 years ago? It was cool but more like proof of concept than something you want to use day after day.

[John]

Yeah it's nice to experimenting with other OSes but not every of them ready for everyday using. Some of them are only for emulator on your primary system.

I found old GUI for X environment and I am interesting can I try it on my modern machine with modern linux distro

[graudeejs]

you forgot to mention:
Risc OS Open - http://www.riscosopen.org/content/
Bare Metal OS - http://www.returninfinity.com/baremetal.html (Link seams broken ATM) (Written in ASM if I recall corectly)
AuroraUX Project - http://www.auroraux.org/index.php/Main_Page - OS based on DragonflyBSD. The core of the project and its utilities are written in Ada
HelenOs - http://www.helenos.org/ (Screens here: http://trac.helenos.org/wiki/Screenshots, ) BTW, some nice docs from HelenOs: http://trac.helenos.org/wiki/DeveloperDocs
BeTROS - http://www.bertos.org/
FreeDOS for gods sake - http://www.freedos.org/
KolibriOS http://www.kolibrios.org/
Minix - I can't believe it wasn't mentioned - http://www.minix3.org/ (Last I've heard EU was to invest in developing Minix as stable and secure OS, mostly because of it's kernel)
PureDarwin - http://www.puredarwin.org/
SkyOs - http://www.skyos.org/?q=node (Probably proprietary)

Multics (Source Available) - http://www.multicians.org/

BTW, MenuetOS jumpet to pretty shitty license

Menuet64 Copyright (c) 2005-2011 Ville Turjanmaa

1) Free for personal and educational use.
2) Contact menuetos.net for commercial use.
3) Redistribution, reverse engineering, disassembly or decompilation
prohibited without permission from the copyright holders.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS, AUTHORS, AND
CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.
IN NO EVENT SHALL VILLE TURJANMAA OR ANY AUTHORS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE
OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE,
EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

[John]

Some of them are good (for me) but some are in early stages of development and have ugly gui. SkyOS is so dead OS. I heard that it had open source versions but you can't find them anywhere. It's nice to mention OpenSolaris or now OpenIndiana I think.

[John]

Yea, I would like to try OliveBSD (OpenBSD based) Live CD but I can't find it anywhere!

[jggimi]

See my live media FAQ page for a link, John.

[John]

Ok thanks.I will download GNOME because it's closer to OliveBSD