Obscure and Obsolete Operating Systems - Page 2

foxmulder881 · 28th August 2008, 3:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HyRax1

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...

Yeah I remember geos. It was bugger slow to boot up from the old 5 1/2" floppies, but when loaded, it had some great apps. I used to write a lot back in those days. I still have my old print outs from the dot-matrix printer. Fuck man, now were they a slow printer! Haha.

HyRax1 · 28th August 2008, 3:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foxmulder881

Yeah I remember geos. It was bugger slow to boot up from the old 5 1/2" floppies, but when loaded, it had some great apps. I used to write a lot back in those days. I still have my old print outs from the dot-matrix printer. Fuck man, now were they a slow printer! Haha.

...and noisy! I remember not being allowed to print late at night otherwise I'd wake up my folks - not good when you had a project due the next day!! Hehehehe...!

Took a good 45 minutes to print up several pages in so-called "HQ" mode (ie: several passes over the one line, slightly offset from the last to smooth out the fonts) - man I went through the ribbons!

If I look hard enough, I'll bet I have the GEOS disks lying around too - I've still got my C64's (though I've butchered two of them to make the third one keep working).

I remember when QNX first came out, it took me back to the GEOS days too...

elvis · 29th August 2008, 8:31 AM

Have you guys ever seen the videos of that bloke who plays classical music using 9 and 24 pin printers?

Pretty cool. He's worked out the rough "note" that particular strings of characters make (eg: a line of periods (.) makes a higher pitched squeal than a line of some chunky letter). He then lines up about a half dozen printers, and prints out characters to play the music.

Very cool. I need to track that guy down..

HyRax1 · 29th August 2008, 9:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elvis

Have you guys ever seen the videos of that bloke who plays classical music using 9 and 24 pin printers?

No, never - if you find it, please link it - love creative things like that!

elvis · 29th August 2008, 10:53 AM

I can't seem to find the original one. There's been a few others doing the same thing since, but not to the same quality:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/17...printer-m.html
http://au.youtube.com/results?search...rch_type=&aq=f

Outcast_Aussie · 29th August 2008, 7:47 PM

lol

I just took the same Epson printer and a HP paintjet down the tip

HyRax1 · 30th August 2008, 8:43 PM

Ah, here's a thing that takes me back - the singing 1541 floppy disk drive. I played this so much on my original 1541 that I did eventually totally stuff the heads. Barely reads anything now (replaced it with a 1541-II drive - still have it somewhere too).

foxmulder881 · 30th August 2008, 9:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HyRax1

Ah, here's a thing that takes me back - the singing 1541 floppy disk drive. I played this so much on my original 1541 that I did eventually totally stuff the heads. Barely reads anything now (replaced it with a 1541-II drive - still have it somewhere too).

Hehe, that's gold mate! The good old 1541s hey.

fref99 · 1st September 2008, 1:28 AM

Hi,

How about CPM/86, I still need to use it about once every 3 months or so, don't you just love PIP and user levels

Or maybe Concurrent DOS :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS

Regards
FREF99

dirtyd · 1st September 2008, 11:08 AM

Microsoft Linux!

Mr. Bump! · 17th February 2009, 7:38 PM

reactos

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

scruff · 17th February 2009, 7:51 PM

www.skyos.org

stmok · 18th February 2009, 4:38 AM

MenuetOS
http://www.menuetos.net/
The whole thing is written in assembly language with 32bit and 64bit versions. Its Freeware.

KolibriOS
http://www.kolibrios.org/
A fork of the 32bit version of MenuetOS before it became closed source. This one continues under GPL.

I just tried the latter in VirtualBox...Uses about 10MB RAM. Not really stable though. I missed those days of OSs that run on very little hardware requirements.

Swathe · 18th February 2009, 9:10 AM

Microsoft colour basic 1984 is the OS on my Tandy TRS-80. Still all works with tape drive, joysticks etc.

Phool · 22nd February 2009, 4:46 PM

RT11 - cannot remember what on. pdp11 clone with a dinner plate removable 5meg hard disk iirc. awesone text mode startrek and of course Adventure

>
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue

I remember helping code some athletics data entry screens with escape sequence based cursor movement....

CP/M was different to CPM-86 wasnt it? The latter ran on IBMPC gen 1?
Whats it running on? That was the Morrow MD5 osborne executive kaypro II era wasnt it - and those to die for Compaq luggables came along with PCdos or something ? Ahh the days when people read Byte and Circuit Cellar, logged on the BBS systems with home grown modem banks.

What did the amstrad and microbees run?

29th August 2008, 8:31 AM	#18
elvis Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 19,921	Have you guys ever seen the videos of that bloke who plays classical music using 9 and 24 pin printers? Pretty cool. He's worked out the rough "note" that particular strings of characters make (eg: a line of periods (.) makes a higher pitched squeal than a line of some chunky letter). He then lines up about a half dozen printers, and prints out characters to play the music. Very cool. I need to track that guy down.. __________________ Child's Play Charity

29th August 2008, 10:53 AM	#20
elvis Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 19,921	I can't seem to find the original one. There's been a few others doing the same thing since, but not to the same quality: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/17...printer-m.html http://au.youtube.com/results?search...rch_type=&aq=f __________________ Child's Play Charity

30th August 2008, 8:43 PM	#22
HyRax1 48656C6C6F20576F726C6421 Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: At a desk. Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 7,077	Ah, here's a thing that takes me back - the singing 1541 floppy disk drive. I played this so much on my original 1541 that I did eventually totally stuff the heads. Barely reads anything now (replaced it with a 1541-II drive - still have it somewhere too). __________________ If practice makes perfect, and nobody's perfect, why practice?

1st September 2008, 1:28 AM	#24
fref99 Member Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Switzerland Posts: 819	Hi, How about CPM/86, I still need to use it about once every 3 months or so, don't you just love PIP and user levels Or maybe Concurrent DOS :- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiuser_DOS Regards FREF99 __________________ Walking on water and writing software to specification is easy, if they are frozen home of the mobile webcam - OCAU thread

1st September 2008, 11:08 AM	#25
dirtyd Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: 127.0.0.1 Posts: 3,681	Microsoft Linux! __________________ "It is worthy of remark that a belief constantly inculcated during the early years of life, whilst the brain is impressible, appears to acquire almost the nature of an instinct; and the very essence of an instinct is that it is followed independently of reason." - Charles Darwin \| trustworthy traders

29th August 2008, 7:47 PM	#21
Outcast_Aussie Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Peterboro, Distro:Ubuntu Posts: 532	lol I just took the same Epson printer and a HP paintjet down the tip

17th February 2009, 7:38 PM	#26
Mr. Bump! (Banned or Deleted) Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: QLD Posts: 3,648	reactos http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

17th February 2009, 7:51 PM	#27
scruff RIP Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Melbourne Posts: 3,452	www.skyos.org

18th February 2009, 4:38 AM	#28
stmok Member Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 8,872	MenuetOS http://www.menuetos.net/ The whole thing is written in assembly language with 32bit and 64bit versions. Its Freeware. KolibriOS http://www.kolibrios.org/ A fork of the 32bit version of MenuetOS before it became closed source. This one continues under GPL. I just tried the latter in VirtualBox...Uses about 10MB RAM. Not really stable though. I missed those days of OSs that run on very little hardware requirements. __________________ "Haters gonna hate." => "I have no logical rebuttal to your criticism so I'm going to say something simple and meaningless to make myself feel better."-crabjokeman from Techreport.com forums. "The politicians don’t just want your money. They want your soul. They want you to be worn down by taxes until you are dependent and helpless."-James Dale Davidson.

18th February 2009, 9:10 AM	#29
Swathe Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Rockhampton Posts: 2,174	Microsoft colour basic 1984 is the OS on my Tandy TRS-80. Still all works with tape drive, joysticks etc. __________________ People reckon I'm too patronising (That means I treat them as if they're stupid). Over $9k in trades http://www.gentoo.org/

22nd February 2009, 4:46 PM	#30
Phool Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Gold Coast Posts: 667	RT11 - cannot remember what on. pdp11 clone with a dinner plate removable 5meg hard disk iirc. awesone text mode startrek and of course Adventure > It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue I remember helping code some athletics data entry screens with escape sequence based cursor movement.... CP/M was different to CPM-86 wasnt it? The latter ran on IBMPC gen 1? Whats it running on? That was the Morrow MD5 osborne executive kaypro II era wasnt it - and those to die for Compaq luggables came along with PCdos or something ? Ahh the days when people read Byte and Circuit Cellar, logged on the BBS systems with home grown modem banks. What did the amstrad and microbees run? __________________ Powder skiing in Japan...crippled by the Aussie peso...$10 coffees no thanks...