Other alternative OS'es

[PhoenixMDM]

What are some other non-M$, non-*nix operating systems? Besides mac, palm, and other useless choices that is. And does anyone have screenshots of far-out ones like BeOS and OS/2?

[XWRed1]

QNX, AtheOS, TreLOS. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. There are tons of obscure ones, but those are the only unmentioned ones that seems to be viable for general purpose use.

You should be able to find screenshots of BeOS if you dig around be.com. Its not really that far out.

[PolyPill]

As far as I know QNX and BeOS are still un*x based. Pretty sure BeOS is a BSD, and same with QNX. It's very hard to find an alternative that isn't because anything else has very little to offer. Using a un*x base most of the work is already done and available for free.

I don't see why you want something that isn't. Anything you find wont have very many applications and I doubt will be free.

Like Novell, it isn't un*x or win but will cost a lot and in my oppinion doesn't do a very good job.

[XWRed1]

Nope, QNX is a fresh real time OS, that supports POSIX, so you get a Unix-like console and environment out of it.

Its not a big desktop OS, though, but there is supposed to be a quake port, which is all that really matters.

BeOS isn't Unix at all either. For one thing, its pretty much all C++. Its pretty much its own thing, except that it provides a POSIX environment as well, so you get bash and gcc, vi, etc.

[PhoenixMDM]

Lol, i'm not planning to try any! I'm just looking for the names and screenshots of some! Heh, having a hard enough time over here installing redhat7.2. I think i'll dig around be.com and see if i can find anything, thnx.

[XWRed1]

try atheos.cx (http://www.atheos.cx/) for AtheOS shots, here[/url for QNX screenshots.

I can't find any screenshots of BeOS, but the faq is [url=http://www.be.com/support/faqs/]here (http://www.qnx.com/products/photon/index.html). If you really wanted, I could install it and make some screenshots.

Edit: here's some BeOS screenshots I found

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen1_sm.gif (http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen1.gif)

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen2_sm.gif (http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen2.gif)

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen3_sm.gif (http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen3.gif)

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen4_sm.gif (http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen4.gif)

http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen5_sm.gif (http://www.angelfire.com/pe/sbeoney/images/ss/screen5.gif)

[PhoenixMDM]

I tried to install BeOS, and it worked surprisingly fast, but it didn't like my radeon7000 video card, and wouldn't even start on the Dell. The best i could get was greyscale, but it still looked pretty cool.

Is it jsut me, or do all those OS'es look sorta like Mac, Windows, and/or some combination? Lol, what happened to the radically different?:D

[XWRed1]

Be, the company that made BeOS, as founded by a guy who was sort of high up at Apple.

It originally only ran on Macs, and I think the original business plan was to sell the company back to Apple for them to use as their new OS.

They choss NeXT and NextStep, unfortunately.

QNX doesn't seem to look like anything, really.

I mean, how different can the UI be? All the fundamentals are pretty much the same no matter what.

Its what the OSes *DO* that makes them unique, not how they look. To judge solely on the UI is sort of shallow.

[dolemitecomputer]

You could try OS/2 but that actually was orginally designed by Microsoft so that might not be up your alley. QNX has a really cool demo that runs from a floopy disk! Come to think of it most operating systems are somewhat based on Unix. I can't think of one that isn't.

[XWRed1]

Well, the ones I listed are not Unix based. Technically, neither is Linux.

There are a bunch of other OSes, but they are mostly for specialized tasks and not suitable for running on your desktop machine.

Plan9/Inferno is another non-Unix based OS, that is good enough for a desktop machine. Designed by the original designers of Unix.

[PhoenixMDM]

What i meant by the looks, was that every OS i've seen has the same basic layout, in the sense of the windows. Have you ever seen as OS that (by default) has the titlebar of the side or bottom? How about one that's uses voice recognition alone, instead of keyboard-mouse? I know they're stupid examples, but it just shows that in about a minute i came up with interface things that haven't been done, so why don't people try and make OS'es that do just that: try what hasn't been done?

Dolemite, i've heard a little about OS/2, but never really taken the time to look at it. Ever use it before? And is it free??:p

[XWRed1]

Have you ever seen as OS that (by default) has the titlebar of the side or bottom? How about one that's uses voice recognition alone, instead of keyboard-mouse? I know they're stupid examples, but it just shows that in about a minute i came up with interface things that haven't been done, so why don't people try and make OS'es that do just that: try what hasn't been done?

No... but neither one of those things require a new OS. At most, just a new window manager or something.

Lots of OSes have had voice commands to the extent that you can use the whole thing with your voice.

Titlebars on the side is pretty trivial, I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find a window manager + theme combo that does it in a Unix.


Dolemite, i've heard a little about OS/2, but never really taken the time to look at it. Ever use it before? And is it free??

Nope, its not free. Its made by IBM, and is pretty much a failure. It went up against WinNT and lost, IBM is pretty much only supporting it for existing customers.

[PhoenixMDM]

Lol, ok, so what can you think of that WOULD require a new OS...?

OS/2 isn't free? Then i'm not remotely interested:p

[XWRed1]

Lol, ok, so what can you think of that WOULD require a new OS...?

Something truly new, that none of the old OSes can do very good, simply because of their design.

Beos's claim to fame was that it threw out a ton of legacy kruft, and was built from the ground up to be a media OS.

Of course, I'm talking about something necessitating a new OS. Anybody can go out and start making a new one, because they feel like it, but thats not really necessary.