Computer science undergrad- Grad School for developing OS?

Question

I want to design a browser-based OS. I have several good ideas for what to implement in it, although I think Google might beat me to some of them, I'd still like to know what good grad schools programs are there that will help prepare me for making a good OS?


I'm not a doctor but from what I can see Microsoft sucks, Apple is trying to BE Microsoft and is intentionally being as incompatable as they can get away with, and Linux is so sloppy with all their freaking updates and the problems those create and people forgetting about everything they're throwing out there for it (especially Ubuntu). We're going to have to move away from those eventually, might as well give it my best shot and see where it goes right?

Answer 1

Creating a browser-based OS is a novel idea. One would expect that the W3C HTML, XHTML, XSL, XSLT, and DSSSL specifications (not to mention CSS and XML, for the moment, anyway) would underlie the structure of your namespace, and that you could provide updates/upgrades using an automatic parser/code-generator which chews up the official specs and spits out OS code to match.



If you aren't planning to do that, forget about interoperability with all of the browsers out there, because they all do their own parsing, and they all follow these specifications pretty closely. When you've got an OS, you need an audience to buy it; and if people aren't sure that the br-OS they buy from you is going to handle not only what they've got now but what the W3C recommends supporting ten years down the road, they won't buy.



And if you don't think it's necessary to support all of those formal specifications (and even the W3C may not think so in ten years), which one(s) are you going to follow? Just hope you don't wind up in the "Land of Perpetual Upgrades" because of somebody else's decision about what the IETF and W3C want to continue support or to introduce.

Answer 2

You have major misconceptions about all the major operating systems, and I'm saying that as a Micro$oft hater. Windows is a commodity Operating system which is crippling our infrastructure by being sold in places which have NO business using it. The result is a multi-billion dollar malwarye industry and various attacks which evidence strongly suggest DO have sponsership by various governments.



Linux is a commodity Operating system too, or rather family of operating systems, however it is a commodity version of BSD UNIX, as OS with academic origins and primarily intended for academic purposes. It does inherit a safer internal design than Windows but the black hats now have plenty of time and money to devote to compromising it when it suits their purpose and when it has they have. Think of it as a do-it-yourself Operating System kit though and you will be closer to the mark than you are.



Now the irony about your comments is the Mac OS X is actually, at its core, BSD UNIX. It has a lot of proprietary stuff on top of it but read this page:



http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/OSX_Technology_Overview/MacOSXOverview/MacOSXOverview.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001067-CH205-BCICAIFJ



If you are a CS undergrad in a decent program you should have sufficient background to begin writing an OS after two years of study. It may take you several years to write it but the OS classes I've heard about were open to Juniors as well as seniors and grad students. If you are serious about this you should be looking at your curricula and readying yourself to take that course -- or to transfer to a school that offers it.



Just an anecdote. Linus Torvalds used Minix. This is a UNIX variant which was literally created to teach operating system design. He first announced the Linux kernel in -- I believe -- the comp.os.minix newsgroup. This among other things got him the advice and assistance of Andy Tannenbaum, Minix's creator who teaches in Amsterdam. After it was done Tannenbaum told him that if he were getting graded on it, the grade would be very low.

Answer 3

You have some major misconceptions of Linux and it's distributions.



Anyways, developing an OS by yourself would be an amazing feat -- one so amazing that it has never been done before.



Do it. Challenges are fun. :D