Cosmos: the C# OS that you can play with

Posted By: Christian Liensberger | Feb 2nd, 2008 @ 12:07 AM | 9,149 Views | 2 Comments

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Cosmos is an operating system project that aims to be completely implemented in CIL compliant languages, that is currently 100% C#.
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Who doesn't want to build their own OS? Cosmos provides all the legos and lets you forget the hard parts of writing low level kernel pieces, and unlike other OS's does not force you into C++. Use C# (or any .NET language), plug the legos that you need, and build your shell!

Yay! What a great world Big Smile

The first public OS that is 100% written in C#. Isn't it awesome; after the Singularity OS that has hasn't been made publicly available yet this is finally something that we all can play with and give feedback.

A step-by-step guide on how to make it work on your PC

1) Go to http://gocosmos.org/Vault/index.aspx and download the "Milestone 1" release. It is a small zip file.

2) Extract the zip file:

3) Download and install Microsoft Virtual PC from here.

4) Start Virtual PC:

5) Create a new virtual machine:

Make sure to give it some RAM. The virtual hard disk doesn't need to be that big. 20 MB or even less will do it Smiley

6) Start the virtual machine by clicking on the "Start" button in the window with the title "Virtual PC Console". The following window should come up:

7) Click the "CD" menu and then the "Capture ISO Image" menu entry. In the following dialog navigate to the folder where you have extracted the Cosmos zip file and select the "Cosmos.iso":

8) Next click the "Action" menu and there the "Reset" menu entry. This should reset the virtual machine and after reset you should boot right into the Cosmos OS and end with a screen like this:

That's it! You have set up Cosmos OS to run in Virtual PC. Happy playing with the operating system (hint: try the "help" command). Big Smile

Btw. you might encounter some issues with Cosmos but keep in mind that this is just a proof of concept and their first release!

If you want to play with the source code you can download it from the official project website at Codeplex. That's also the place where you can give the team feedback.

Rating:

illuminus86

For the record, SharpOS ( http://www.sharpos.org/ ) was the "first" open-source C# OS project. It has a more mature codebase, a *much* larger developer community, and it is significantly more "public" than Cosmos.

You should check it out. Its definitely not Legos, but its a bit sturdier anyway.

And yes, I'm biased, as I am a core developer at SharpOS. But we've been around a year and a half, and we've already worked through alot of the kinks that Cosmos is still facing, since they have only been around a few months.

Alec

Cosmos provides all the legos and lets you forget the hard parts of writing low level kernel pieces, and unlike other OS's does not force you into C++.

Nah, this is the opposite of good. I have been nagging for years that the more and more programming becomes abstract (what are we at now, 6, 7GL?), the more esoteric low-level programming becomes and we will eventually end up with a world where only some specialists at a couple of companies (eg Microsoft) know anything about controlling the computer, and everyone else knows only how to write hello worlds with a single line of code.

I started with mid-level languages and worked my way down to writing assembler to directly control the hardware and have never been a fan of these ultra-high-level languages that allow any old Joe off the street to “program”. You don’t see doctors making plug-in-the-symptom-and-get-a-diagnosis programs that allow everybody to be a doctor and falsely increase the competition for real doctors do you? This whole too-easy-programming for everybody thing is as bad as filmmakers putting behind-the-scenes footage on DVDs, giving away all their trade secrets to everyone who has even a passing fancy of film making.