Cy/VOS is not the only non-mainstream/non-POSIX OS out there, and this page is here to serve as a point of reference to other systems that have acted as an inspiration or just to let the reader gain a fuller idea of what is on offer and what has been created.
Inspirational
These operating systems have served as an inspiration for the work described on these pages:
- Symbian OS - http://www.symbian.com
Psion's seminal microkernel palmtop operating system, now owned by Symbian and called Symbian OS, used in intelligent mobile phones. With the window server and widget set separate from the kernel, the interface is left open as a vendor choice. A description of EPOC is available, detailing the composition of the system and functionality of the GUI as of EPOC 5, the version which inspired and continues to inspire Telcontar. After release 5, it became known as Symbian OS, starting with Symbian OS 6. EMCC Soft published a very informative book Programming Psion Computers -- now a PDF file for download -- that goes into the architecture of Symbian OS 5 in a lot of detail and is a very interesting read.
Reference
- MINIX 3 - http://www.minix3.org/
A minimalist, reliable UNIX clone that could well be everything that Cy/VOS would be if it were to be UNIX and X11 (so precluding universal interface). Their drive for reliability is impressive though.
- MorphOS - http://morphos.pegasosppc.com/
Promising in some ways, but seems to be heavily GUI-orientated and inflexible at the interface level. I would need to read the developer section more.
- ReactOS - http://reactos.com/
Designed to support an emulated Windows environment using mostly DLLs from Wine, but appears to be an OS in its own right with the ability to support GNU software too? Perhaps of interest to kernel development?
