I collect weird operating systems. Can you name more?

[user sam]

I've always been a bit of an oddball. Some people collect bottle caps. Some collect stamps. Still others collect rocks, books, music, cards, etc. I collect operating systems, especially the weird and the free.
I think my favorite is Macintosh, but I've used Plan 9, Linux, BSD, Solaris, Minix, Unix in general, Apple's Lisa Office System, both Mac Classic and X, Amiga Research Operating System (AROS), Reactos, MenuetOS(MeOS)/kolibriOS, Dex OS, Windows, Syllable/AtheOS, Squeak, and Visopsys.
There are a few that I have acquired disks or images of but never used, like Morphos, Haiku, BeOS, OS/2, and FreeDOS.
There are still a few that I have never been able to get a hold of or use, like Multics, Primos, Amiga, RISCOS, and Z/OS.
If anyone can name any others, especially ones I can get my hands on and run without legally dubious emulators, I would be tickled pink. I also thought some other people would be interested in this list, for historical, developmental, or trivial purposes.

[vegetarianshrimp]

Seen this yet?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems

[lisati]

I used to use MVS/XA, one of the OSes available for IBM S/370 mainframes several years ago. An emulator which can run it is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_emulator

[spcwingo]

What about ecomstation? It's the successor to OS/2. The demo CD can be legally downloaded here (http://www.ecomstation.com/democd/).

[davetv]

cp/m

[lisati]

cp/m

I have a copy on a 5.25" disk for Commodore 128s, but no software to run on it! Yay! Strangely reminiscent of MS-DOS (or is it the other way round?:))

[oceania68]

What about Athene from rocklyte systems...

[toupeiro]

I ran PC/GEOS (Geoworks) on my first IBM/PC

I also used to run Tandy Deskmate.

[jamesman]

http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary%27s/Emulation/BIOS_Roms/BIOS_roms_summary.htm
They seem to have Amiga, Apple][, etc Bios dumps. I am not sure of the legal status of these things although I could hardly see them being worth money :)

[HappyFeet]

Hannah Montana Linux (http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=95fbb9c8e3055db44dc854c5234c0481ec86868b)

[longtom]

cp/m

Ahhh - fond memories. My first operating system - on a Schneider Amstrad with 3" (yes, 3") Stiffies.

There was a writing program of sorts and that was about it. Whatever you wanted after that you did yourself.

@ lisati

cp/m is certainly pre DOS. I wonder what happened to it?

[spcwingo]

I forgot one...StormOS. It's based on Nexenta-core (it's a mashup of OpenSolaris and Ubuntu...just cli only). StormOS takes that and adds a GUI. It's still in Beta but, that's part of it's charm. :wink:

EDIT: Forgot a link...clicky (http://stormos.org/).

[longtom]

I have a copy on a 5.25" disk for Commodore 128s, but no software to run on it! Yay! Strangely reminiscent of MS-DOS (or is it the other way round?:))

Here a quote from this link (http://www.digitalresearch.biz/CPM.HTM)



...The largest Digital Research licensee of CP/M was a small company which had started life as Traf-0-Data, and is now known as Microsoft. In 1981, Microsoft paid Seattle Software Works for an unauthorized clone of CP/M, and Microsoft licensed this clone to IBM which marketed it as PC-DOS on the first IBM PC in 1981, and Microsoft marketed it to all other PC OEMs as MS-DOS...


There you have it...

[hanzomon4]

btron - Japanese desktop os

[Grenage]

Hannah Montana Linux (http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=95fbb9c8e3055db44dc854c5234c0481ec86868b)


I think I just died a little inside.

[amitabhishek]

QNX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNX); I am not sure if its free.

Edit: Its not exactly weird.

[speedwell68]

Weird Operating systems you say. Well what about this one Click Here!! (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/)

[starcannon]

I've installed MS Windows Neptune (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Neptune) 5111 on a Virtual Machine before; it was cute, but truly worthless (no that is not a slam), it was an OS that MS never released, and eventually abandoned.

[Deamos]

Hannah Montana Linux (http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=95fbb9c8e3055db44dc854c5234c0481ec86868b)

This scares me.

[longtom]

Hannah Montana Linux

Link appears to be broken...YES!

[mips]

If you want a legal way to use Amiga Workbench etc try http://www.amigaforever.com/

[RiceMonster]

There are still a few that I have never been able to get a hold of or use, like Multics, Primos, Amiga, RISCOS, and Z/OS.

That's because Z/OS is a mainframe only OS. You have to get it directly from IBM and it's sold only to enterprises.

[ssam]

OS Zoo as quite a few live images, but i think you probably have them all already.
http://www.oszoo.org/wiki/index.php/Category:OS_images
some of the linux distros are quite distinct, eg the OLPC.

manlug has some images of early MCC Linux releases http://www.manlug.org/content/blogsection/5/71/ (MCC Interim Linux has the distinction of being the first Linux distribution capable of being independently installed on a computer [wikipedia])

also have you tried things like beebem, the BBC micro emulator.

[user sam]

If you want a legal way to use Amiga Workbench etc try http://www.amigaforever.com/
Oh my gosh! I was SO looking all over for this! It looks like it's only for windows, but I'll look around the web page. Not free, though, that's a bummer.
Here's something that might be interesting, completely romless, just let me try to dig up the link: click here (http://lisa.sunder.net/).

[Sublime Porte]

Surprised nobody mentioned VMS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVMS). It was quite influential in the design of several modern OS's, and is probably one of the most stable OS's ever made. It mostly ran on DEC machines, Alphas and Vaxen.

There is at the moment a project called FreeVMS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeVMS) to create a GPL'ed clone for i386 based machines.

[mips]

Oh my gosh! I was SO looking all over for this! It looks like it's only for windows,

You payed for the ROM/OS/Software license so you can use it in any emulator, be it Win, OSX or Linux.

http://www.amigaforever.com/diversity/
http://www.amigaforever.com/gnulinux/







.

[perito]

I always wanted to check out Foresight Linux (http://www.foresightlinux.org/) because it has a cool name :p

[HappinessNow]

Haiku

[hissyfut]

Not sure what OS this had, but what about the TRS-80, aka 'trashy'?

6 grand brand new!

[HappinessNow]

I always wanted to check out Foresight Linux (http://www.foresightlinux.org/) because it has a cool name :pI don't know; foresight always reminds me of foreskin for some reason?...perhaps it is a cut above the rest?

[vegetarianshrimp]

I don't know; foresight always reminds me of foreskin for some reason?...perhaps it is a cut above the rest?
Thanks for that... :-&

[shingalated]

Os/2

[m_ad]

I used to use BeOS, now known as Zeta (http://www.zeta-os.com/cms/news.php)

[CJ Master]

I always wanted to check out Foresight Linux (http://www.foresightlinux.org/) because it has a cool name :p

Despite the... um... joke, foresight is a very good distro. If you like GNOME I'd recommend you try it out. Weird operating systems? How about.... um.... I don't know what'd make an operating system weird tbh. O_o

[decoherence]

Well, they might be hard to get but

IRIX (with Indigo Magic)
UNICOS (CRAY power!)
GLaDOS (a fully functional disk operating system that is arguably alive)

[swoll1980]

SkyOS. You have to pay for the beta. It doesn't get more odd than that.

[decoherence]

SkyOS. You have to pay for the beta. It doesn't get more odd than that.

LMAO true enough.

BTW, Apple did the same with OS X. Anyone remember? Anyone buy it? (I did, I admit. But I also had every developer preview so I guess I felt generous that day)

[mmix]

glendix
https://mydf5a.bay.livefilestore.com/y1m7SykFXbUX6Y5Wfpo84RF9nfQxLmvoNXNtKD8mhVbjyNJOqi R0mDP_ny28F-ICHOcD4GFdA6uQ6M3cVIEuUFbwiL0TYKYxjlrfWp7zsC81zLvO AKVauQErUl2mD_SR6t253qpsBobH-jyFXwbfn6SjQ/glenda_and_tux.jpg (http://www.glendix.org/)

--
PS: There is A2. (formerly called bluebottle os)
http://bluebottle.ethz.ch/download.html

also, cefarix os.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cefarix/

[phrostbyte]

Plan 9 from Bell Labs

[kingjere]

my first computer was a Zenith. It was special because it had 2 5.25" drives. One for Zdos and one for saving files;) Good luck finding it though.

P.S. a quick google led me to www.zenithpc.com and they sell computers with linux pre-installed. The price is in Rs. so I don't even know where that is.

[Katalog]

Has anyone mentioned the SAM Coupe' yet? It was a short-lived British computer that ran an OS called SAM Basic. There used to be an emulator out there for it somewhere, and it actually ran some pretty cool old games.

[yabbadabbadont]

QNX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNX); I am not sure if its free.

Edit: Its not exactly weird.

QNX is a commercial real-time unix. It is used for a lot of the ATM switching network in the US.

Personally, the "weirdest" OS that I've ever messed with was MMURTL (http://www.ipdatacorp.com/mmurtlpd.html). Between it and the Intel System Builders reference manual, I learned a lot about the internals of operating systems. (More than I did in the class on the subject way back in college. :))

[longtom]

my first computer was a Zenith. It was special because it had 2 5.25" drives. One for Zdos and one for saving files;) Good luck finding it though.

P.S. a quick google led me to www.zenithpc.com and they sell computers with linux pre-installed. The price is in Rs. so I don't even know where that is.

Rs stands for Rupis - and that's used in India...

[kingjere]

@longtom Thanks. That makes their cheapest laptop $460 US.

[user sam]

Just for the record, i found another 2 awesomely weird operating systems: MikeOS (http://mikeos.berlios.de/)
and Androidx86(http://www.androidx86.org/). this will probably be superseded by the ChromeOS, but it will always be in my heart as a freakin' weird system.
I also found a system called Integrity RTOS(http://www.ghs.com/products/rtos/integrity.html) dunno how weird it is. oh, and someone mentioned sam coupe? here's the emulator: http://www.simcoupe.org/

[Starlight]

This looks like a weird operating system, written in Java http://www.jnode.org/

The screenshots are quite nice :)

[klauspost]

Just signed up because I cannot believe that no-one has mentioned the most exotic (and weird) OS I've ever seen: Losethos:

http://www.losethos.com/

64-bit x86 ONLY, 640x480 16 color ONLY, no network, no kernel mode separation or mapped memory.

The command prompt is a live C-JIT-compiler, so all programs are invoked as function calls. Watch the videoes. THIS is a weird OS!

[TNT1]

Hannah Montana Linux (http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=95fbb9c8e3055db44dc854c5234c0481ec86868b)

Yeah! HML FTW!
:guitar:

[iiiears]

And i thought distrowatch was all inclusive - lol


Just signed up because I cannot believe that no-one has mentioned the most exotic (and weird) OS I've ever seen: Losethos:

http://www.losethos.com/

64-bit x86 ONLY, 640x480 16 color ONLY, no network, no kernel mode separation or mapped memory.

The command prompt is a live C-JIT-compiler, so all programs are invoked as function calls. Watch the videoes. THIS is a weird OS!

Thank You for the link - LoseThos looks like hours of fun!

[Whistling Nixie]

Well, if this doesn't take the biscuit...

Tinfoil Hat Linux (http://tinfoilhat.shmoo.com/)

[Shining Arcanine]

Try NACHOS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Another_Completely_Heuristic_Operating_System

There is also the seL4 kernel:

http://ertos.nicta.com.au/research/sel4/

[Spice Weasel]

uDOS (http://www.sde.cs.titech.ac.jp/%7Egondow/udos/index.html)

Alpine Linux (http://www.alpinelinux.org/wiki)