Visopsys
Visopsys is an open-source operating system built from scratch for x86 PCs. It is designed primarily for educational purposes to demonstrate OS concepts, but can also be used for more practical purposes.
opensource
educational
x86
pc
Visopsys: Open-Source OS for Educational and Practical Use
An open-source operating system designed primarily for educational purposes, demonstrating OS concepts, but also suitable for practical use on x86 PCs.
What is Visopsys?
Visopsys is an open-source operating system built from scratch for x86 PCs. It is designed to be compatible with most hardware and drivers from existing operating systems like Linux and Windows.
The main purpose of Visopsys is educational - to demonstrate and explain concepts behind operating system internals like kernel design, memory management, multitasking, drivers, filesystems, etc. However, it incorporates many features from modern OSes and can function for more practical uses like software development.
Some key features of Visopsys include:
- Kernel written entirely from scratch in C
- Memory protection and preemptive multitasking
- Support for common hardware like storage drives, graphics cards, sound cards, input devices, networking, etc.
- Drivers for many devices reverse-engineered from existing OS drivers
- FAT32 and ISO9660 filesystem support
- Shell, file editing, network utilities included
- Boots from CD/DVD, USB, HDD, or over network
The project began in the early 2000s and is still actively maintained. The OS can be downloaded for free and the full source code is available under GPL. It runs well in emulators like QEMU or VirtualBox, making experimentation easy.
Visopsys Features
Features
- Microkernel architecture
- Pre-emptive multitasking
- Memory protection
- Graphical user interface
- File system
- Networking stack
- Drivers for common hardware
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Open source code allows customization
Good for learning operating system concepts
Lightweight and fast compared to other OSes
Works on most x86 hardware
Cons
Limited driver support compared to major OSes
Small user and developer community
Fewer applications available
Not designed for production use
Official Links
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