In your opinion what is the the most promising hobby OS

[asifnaz]

Plan 9

http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9
Bell Labs continues to dabble in a different Unix.
Minix

http://www.minix3.org (http://www.minix3.org/)
This is the famous OS that wasn't what Linux Torvalds wanted.


MenuetOS

http://www.menuetos.org/
Pure assembly language (x86) all the way. Fits on a single floppy, yet boots as a GUI. Strongly focused on squeezing ultimate performance out of x86 hardware.


KolibriOS

http://www.kolibrios.org (http://www.kolibrios.org/)
Another pure assembly language OS.
Syllable

http://syllable.sourceforge.net/
Syllable is a fork of Atheos. Both are "semi POSIX"; that is, they don't intend POSIX compliance but do borrow strongly. The distinguishing feature here seems to be the non-X GUI and a file system that is reminiscent of Mac resource forks, but extended to multiple forks.
TriangleOS

http://members.chello.nl/~w.cools/ (http://members.chello.nl/%7Ew.cools/)
This is one-man effort, and the source code is not available. It is surprisingly complete considering that, though there are of course major omissions still. I can't find anything you'd call unusual here: it's another OS.
ReactOS

http://www.reactos.com/
This is a brash attempt to make an NT compatible Open Source operating system. As might be imagined, it's rather incomplete.
SkyOS

http://www.skyos.org/
This is "mainly (99.9%) a one man project" according to the web page and looks to be more complete than Triangle. Again though, it's Just Another OS as far as I can tell.
FreeDOS

http://www.freedos.org/
The goal here is a free, 100% MSDOS compatible OS. Some people may wonder why, but in fact there is still a large amount of MSDOS code kicking about, some of it doing fairly important tasks, and porting it to other systems can be hard. As the day is fast approaching where you won't be able to buy real MSDOS at all, this could become very necessary.
DROPS

http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/drops/overview.html
The Dresden Real-Time Operating System Project uses L4Linux (http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/L4/LinuxOnL4/overview.html) to run ordinary time-sharing applications alongside the real-time tasks.
AROS

http://www.aros.org/
This is for the Amiga lovers. For those who have never experienced the fervor of a true Amigo explaining why nothing since has even come close to what Amiga was, well, it's something everyone should experience at least once. Some of their rantings actually have a base in reality, so don't discount this out of hand.
Aranym

http://aranym.sourceforge.net (http://aranym.sourceforge.net/) is for 32-bit Atari ST/TT/Falcon operating systems.
Visopsys

http://www.visopsys.org (http://www.visopsys.org/)
Another one person project.
Others

I'm happy to add more if you'd like to point me at something you found interesting

[sdowney717]

http://haiku-os.org/

http://haiku-os.org/sites/haiku-os.org/themes/shijin/logo.png

[asifnaz]

http://haiku-os.org/

http://haiku-os.org/sites/haiku-os.org/themes/shijin/logo.png
Haiku is cool but I don't think it is a hobby OS

[forrestcupp]

What is your definition of a hobby OS?

[MBybee]

What is your definition of a hobby OS?

Have to second that - if Haiku doesn't fit, what does?

[haqking]

Haiku is cool but I don't think it is a hobby OS

Is this yours ? if not quote your references ;-)
http://aplawrence.com/Unixart/hobbyos.html

[KingYaba]

Haiku and ReactOS. :popcorn:

[Old_Grey_Wolf]

What does hobby OS mean; such as, not well known?

What does promising mean; such as, may become a dominant OS?

To me, the most promising OS is one I can install, enjoy customizing, enjoy using it to integrating various applications, and it works for me.

[wolfen69]

Windows.

[jjex22]

I agree - i'd have thought haiku was the definition of a hobby OS - kept going by those that loved BeOS

As for most promising... does this mean most likely to become a mass deployment operating system one day?

If that's the case I'd say it's gotta be Minix 3 or GNU/Hurd -minix for deployment within imbeded systems etc, and GNU/Hurd.. well Debian is aiming for a 2013 deployment - apparently 60% of packages have been ported - when it come's to the Hurd we'll see, but the great thing about Debian is that we know a stable release will be just that! - the kfreebsd port was a case in point, though I don't think that offered enough to get people switching kernels, but who knows 20 years of hobbying, maybe the Hurd could offer the carrot? - I'm undecided, but hopeful!

I gues I'd like to see Minix 3 achieve it's potential - I've been slowly playing with Operating Systems Design and Implementation for around 15 months, so have developed a real bond with Minix 3. I also like the Open Indiana Project - I never used Open Solaris... or Solaris, but I've been following Open Indiana for a little over a year in a VM and got a real soft spot for it.

On the other hand in an ideal world I'd like to see a unified BSD like there is for linux - just think it'd really help grow BSD... I suppose there sort of is in that nearly all forked projects come from freebsd nowadays, but maybe a change communal development would be nice - IMHO. Even though I love bsd as much as any distro, I gues it feels to me like a hobby os, no offence to anyone else - I've been using pc-bsd since the launch of 7.1, but I've never seen it gaining mega deployment outside of servers and the like - just a hunch.

[Thewhistlingwind]

Have to second that - if Haiku doesn't fit, what does?

Thirded.

[phrostbyte]

Minix because it is well funded and is trying to fill a real niche (embedded control systems). Even more so now that QNX is owned by Blackberry.

[asifnaz]

What is your definition of a hobby OS?

Haiku is a large scale project and it is too complex to be called a hobby project they collect donation and 10 years of development has bring it to alpha stage .

If definition of a hobby OS is so broad then GNU/Linux is a hobby OS as well

[CryptAck]

10 years of development has bring it to alpha stage.


Exactly why it's a Hobby OS. :)

[forrestcupp]

Haiku is a large scale project and it is too complex to be called a hobby project they collect donation and 10 years of development has bring it to alpha stage .

If definition of a hobby OS is so broad then GNU/Linux is a hobby OS as well

Most people in the world would probably consider GNU/Linux a hobby OS.

By your definition, a promising hobby OS that achieved the goal of its promise wouldn't be a hobby OS anymore.

[haqking]

from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hobby


hob·by1   [hob-ee]
noun, plural -bies.
1.
an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation: Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving.

From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/operating%20system


operating system 
noun Computers.
the collection of software that directs a computer's operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS

Therefore a Hobby OS is an Operating system we use or play with or experiment with for pleasure or during out spare time. So in my opinion it would be any OS we dont use in our daily work or that we run concurrently with our main host OS for learning, playing, experimenting purposes.

If you run windows and run Ubuntu in a VM or from a USB then Ubuntu is likely to be your Hobby OS, if you run Debian and run Windows in a VM or from a USB then it is your Hobby OS, if you only run one OS and spend a lot of time playing and tinkering and learning rather than just use it as a tool to achieve a goal it is also a hobby OS.

Therefore any OS can be a Hobby OS depending on what you do with it.

In conclusion i have way too many hobbies ;-)

[MBybee]

Haiku is a large scale project and it is too complex to be called a hobby project they collect donation and 10 years of development has bring it to alpha stage .

If definition of a hobby OS is so broad then GNU/Linux is a hobby OS as well

Wow, then Plan 9 certainly doesn't go on your list :D
That's been in professional (Bell Labs) development since 1992, and the latest release is listed as 2002.

I thought it was dead to be honest.

[asifnaz]

from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hobby


From http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/operating%20system



Therefore a Hobby OS is an Operating system we use or play with or experiment with for pleasure or during out spare time. So in my opinion it would be any OS we dont use in our daily work or that we run concurrently with our main host OS for learning, playing, experimenting purposes.

If you run windows and run Ubuntu in a VM or from a USB then Ubuntu is likely to be your Hobby OS, if you run Debian and run Windows in a VM or from a USB then it is your Hobby OS, if you only run one OS and spend a lot of time playing and tinkering and learning rather than just use it as a tool to achieve a goal it is also a hobby OS.

Therefore any OS can be a Hobby OS depending on what you do with it.

In conclusion i have way too many hobbies ;-)

Logically you are right . But hobby OS means hobby at the the creator's part not at the users . Like Mike OS its a one man OS which he made as hobby .

With your logic I dont have any "real" OS as I play with all oses :P

[haqking]

Logically you are right . But hobby OS means hobby at the the creator's part not at the users . Like Mike OS its a one man OS which he made as hobby .

With your logic I dont have any "real" OS as I play with all oses :P

well it means that in your definition which you didnt clarify on in your OP.

If then by your definition, then there is no best one, as it is your or whoevers job to create it and then it is your hobby.

If you play with someone elses then it is no longer a one man OS hence the user becomes significant.

Every distro is then by definition a Hobby OS as the linux kernel was originally developed by one person.

Does that make windows a hobby os as the original kernel was developed by Dave Cutler who created VMS ?

A hobby is a hobby, anything i play with or gain fun or learn from is a hobby to me, whether i created it or someone else did for me

[mikaelcrocker]

I would say a Debian based OS. Packages are wicked easy to install and there are gobs and gobs of free tools out there with a great deal of documentation and user forums.

[jonnny_j22]

Oh for the love of Pete - knew this thread would be like this when I saw the title - 19 posts, 13 of them arguing over the definition of a hobby OS.

Let's make it clear; that's a stupid name as there are very few 'hobby OS's' - going to all that effort trying to make a stable release OS with no aim other than you had nothing better to do on a Thursday night? I'm relatively certain if I spent the amount of man hours fishing it takes to get an OS to the point where it'll even run on all the machines in my house, I doubt very much anyone else would describe fishing as my hobby - they'd hold an intervention!

Please, please, please, change the OP to something like "which of these OS's is your favourite", or "which OS other than linux, OSX, Windows would you like to see gain popularity", or "which of these projects interests you the most?" all subjective, yes but may generate slightly more answers in the original theme.

For the Record I've alway's believed in the Hurd, just never thought it'd happen, and there's some interesting stuff going on over with nexenta - though I always struggle with their website to work out where it's at!

[BrokenKingpin]

http://haiku-os.org/

http://haiku-os.org/sites/haiku-os.org/themes/shijin/logo.png
++
haiku looks pretty sweet. If it had more application support I would consider giving it a dedicated partition. That being said, Linux does everything I need.

[TeamRocket1233c]

Probably either ReactOS or FreeDOS.