Obscure and Obsolete Operating Systems

Smakked · 25th August 2008, 4:40 PM

Thought it would be good to discuss Obscure OSes , i just found on i haven't heard of plan9 http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/

Looks pretty basic to me

What have you seen or found over the years.

Edit: Changed the thread title.

HeatVision · 25th August 2008, 6:03 PM

Plan9 isn't obscure. There are thousands of more obscure embedded RTOSes like PXROS or RTEMS out there. If you want to restrict yourself to Desktop OSes then have a look through http://freshmeat.net/browse/136/ and find things like AROS or Agnix.

Smakked · 25th August 2008, 6:24 PM

Yeah was looking at them earlier alot are dead now tho no longer developed

[aE]-brent · 25th August 2008, 7:18 PM

Plan 9 is fairly interesting because it was intended to succeed Unix. I tried it once, there's some really interesting concepts in it but it's really more of a research project. Plan 9 from User Space is a project to port some of the user space stuff to Unix-like systems.

BeOS was cool too. I remember trying it ages ago, before I used Linux I think. Ahead of it's time but it lacked applications.

I think I played with QNX (the desktop one) a while back too.

Outcast_Aussie · 25th August 2008, 8:10 PM

Os4

Probably could qualify as obscure to you. Although it isn't open source.

checkers · 26th August 2008, 1:43 AM

Is this thread for 'obscure', 'old', both or either?

Smakked · 26th August 2008, 12:24 PM

either i spose, there are alot that never wen anywhere.

Cowboy Grandpa · 26th August 2008, 5:27 PM

Genera.

An OS written in Lisp which originally ran on a Lisp machine. I think there has been a recent port to Intel architecture.

http://www.symbolics.com/Genera-1.htm

tin · 27th August 2008, 12:58 PM

The ones I've tried:
QNX
OS/2
DOS 3.x + Win1.0 (I've also used DOS5 and 6 and Win2, 3 and 3.1x)
BeOS
GEOS on C64 (go joystick cursor control!)
AmigaOS

Oh, and if we consider shells: Bob!

Yes I know they aren't technically all obscure, but they aren't generally used by regular people.

Edit:
If you really want a big list of OSes to learn about, there's a list on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems

newmarket · 27th August 2008, 6:24 PM

While not obscure, OS/2 was always a good OS.

I wouldn't mind having a qemu image of it!

ipggi · 27th August 2008, 7:57 PM

I actually purchased BeOS 4 and 5 and had them shipped from the US. BeOS was well ahead of the pack back in the era of Windows 98 and Mac OS 8. Unfortunately it lacked applications, specially internet related and hardware drivers. So once Windows 2000 was established with driver support I jumped ship.

[aE]-brent · 28th August 2008, 9:57 AM

I knew I remembered there being an alternative OS article on OSNews. There's a list of a few obscure OSs that they suggested people write about, and here's the winning articles. Some very interesting reading if you want to learn about operating systems.

spludgey · 28th August 2008, 9:58 AM

Vista (someone had to say it)

HyRax1 · 28th August 2008, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tin

GEOS on C64 (go joystick cursor control!)

GEOS was awesome on the C64! OK, technically it was just an environment, not an OS, but it was still cool - used to do all my school projects on it (and ended up printing it all on an oh-so-awesome 9-pin dot-matrix printer) - I probably still have it buried somewhere in the garage...

elvis · 28th August 2008, 1:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newmarket

OS/2 was always a good OS.

Sure, if you didn't want to run more than one app at a time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by spludgey

Vista (someone had to say it)

Heh.

How about LUnix?
http://lng.sourceforge.net/

26th August 2008, 1:43 AM	#6
checkers Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Perth Posts: 613	Is this thread for 'obscure', 'old', both or either? __________________ CCCP

27th August 2008, 12:58 PM	#9
tin Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Narrabri NSW Posts: 5,653	The ones I've tried: QNX OS/2 DOS 3.x + Win1.0 (I've also used DOS5 and 6 and Win2, 3 and 3.1x) BeOS GEOS on C64 (go joystick cursor control!) AmigaOS Oh, and if we consider shells: Bob! Yes I know they aren't technically all obscure, but they aren't generally used by regular people. Edit: If you really want a big list of OSes to learn about, there's a list on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems __________________ ©®£¤¥±²³¶µ»«¼½¾¿§ The software required Win95 or better, so I installed Linux. Question marks are the new full stop?

25th August 2008, 6:03 PM	#2
HeatVision Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 320	Plan9 isn't obscure. There are thousands of more obscure embedded RTOSes like PXROS or RTEMS out there. If you want to restrict yourself to Desktop OSes then have a look through http://freshmeat.net/browse/136/ and find things like AROS or Agnix.

25th August 2008, 7:18 PM	#4
[aE]-brent Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 741	Plan 9 is fairly interesting because it was intended to succeed Unix. I tried it once, there's some really interesting concepts in it but it's really more of a research project. Plan 9 from User Space is a project to port some of the user space stuff to Unix-like systems. BeOS was cool too. I remember trying it ages ago, before I used Linux I think. Ahead of it's time but it lacked applications. I think I played with QNX (the desktop one) a while back too.

25th August 2008, 8:10 PM	#5
Outcast_Aussie Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Peterboro, Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 532	Os4 Probably could qualify as obscure to you. Although it isn't open source.

26th August 2008, 5:27 PM	#8
Cowboy Grandpa Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Richmond, Victoria Posts: 22	Genera. An OS written in Lisp which originally ran on a Lisp machine. I think there has been a recent port to Intel architecture. http://www.symbolics.com/Genera-1.htm

27th August 2008, 6:24 PM	#10
newmarket Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 45	While not obscure, OS/2 was always a good OS. I wouldn't mind having a qemu image of it!

27th August 2008, 7:57 PM	#11
ipggi Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 4	I actually purchased BeOS 4 and 5 and had them shipped from the US. BeOS was well ahead of the pack back in the era of Windows 98 and Mac OS 8. Unfortunately it lacked applications, specially internet related and hardware drivers. So once Windows 2000 was established with driver support I jumped ship.

28th August 2008, 9:57 AM	#12
[aE]-brent Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 741	I knew I remembered there being an alternative OS article on OSNews. There's a list of a few obscure OSs that they suggested people write about, and here's the winning articles. Some very interesting reading if you want to learn about operating systems.

28th August 2008, 9:58 AM	#13
spludgey Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 5,082	Vista (someone had to say it)