HelenOS : Through my eyes!!!

Hmmm, Lazy Bum again tries to Blog!! ;-)

This time, with an interesting topic: HelenOS!

What is HelenOS? Well I would like to define it as 'A nice and clean budding operating system, which opens up a world of opportunities for computer students and hobbyist to get dirty playing with the complexities of an operating system!' Did that sound weird? No I have not lost my senses, try playing with HelenOS and you would feel exactly what I am feeling! :-)

It would be better to start with saying what HelenOS doesn't offer you. You would be thoroughly disappointed if you start with helenos thinking of a replacement to you current OS. HelenOS is an on-going effort to implement a clean an neat OS which is so simple to understand from design to code. Powered by a micro kernel, you can visualize an operating system in action which has all the basic needs fulfilled. The base is strong and it is slowly getting built up all the way to a full featured modern OS! As of now, HelenOS runs on all the popular architecture out there in the field.

Ok, so what does HelenOS offer? Well, it offers you a stable microkernel supporting SMP, multi tasking and multi threading, and a minimal shell on top of that. And, gamers can experience the magic of Tetris in Helenos! Guaranteed that you wouldn't be bored once you are in the bdsh(brain dead shell as we call it) prompt of HelenOS. HelenOS also has a nice kernel console with a lot of useful commands.

Fun apart, HelenOS actually offers a wide range of opportunities to students and hobbyists. As a developer, I was so attracted to HelenOS. You always learn a lot when getting acquainted with cool projects like this. I wish I could have known about HelenOS during my university days! My OS course wouldn't have been that boring trying to visualize the ideas pouring down from my Professor. HelenOS code is well written and easy to understand that students could benefit a lot when it comes to understanding operating system concepts! It also can give you a short insight of different architectures if you are really interested!

For those who are interested, you can give it a try here. A new release of Helenos 0.4.1 is out with a whole lot of new features including improvements on filesystem handling, more architecture support stability, driver improvements and so on.

You would never feel lost when you are playing with HelenOS or coding for HelenOS. There is a whole lot of documentation in the website and a well maintained wiki for your help. And ofcourse, the mailing list is active with friendly, nice developers! :-)

I want you to feel the thrill! So what are you waiting for?? Give it a try! :-)