A modern desktop OS on a floppy? KolibriOS!

No video

A modern desktop OS on a floppy? KolibriOS!

Рет қаралды 5,187

Күн бұрын

KolibriOS is a tiny operating system that fits on a single 1.44MB floppy! I just had to try it!
What can we do with this OS? Is it just a gimmick or could you use it as a daily driver? Let's find out!
Credits:
The intro consists of me singing over "The Rostrum" from the Wacky Wheels OST.
That's all folks!

Пікірлер: 41

@realGamebreaker Ай бұрын

The fact that even the floppy version comes with like 3 file managers and 2 browsers is not making any sense to me. It‘s just wasted space

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

I agree it's a bit much. I guess there could be some better drivers or whatever in that space.

@_lun4r_ Ай бұрын

just fork it and and delete the excess programs and fit more drivers then

@realGamebreaker Ай бұрын

@@_lun4r_ Oh right I forgot it was open source

@otacon4065 Ай бұрын

DSL - DamnSmallLinux, was great when I was at college, I'd put it on a USB and boot it on the college PC's and be able to do whatever I wanted/browse whatever online without the content restrictions, and cause havok haha!

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

DSL was awesome! There's been some progress on a new version lately. Not as damn small as it used to be haha

@otacon4065 Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguy Yeah it was great! Haha NotSoSmallLinux now I guess!

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

Something like that 😆

@VitorMadeira Ай бұрын

I've red about it on a Facebook post and had to look for it here on KZfaq (some three months ago). I must say your video was the best one that did show the most of this tiny OS. I really enjoyed watching it. Thank you and greetings from Portugal.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

Thanks! Glad you liked it!

@newaccount877 Ай бұрын

I tried before in USB and it was the smoothest experience on my laptop

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

It runs awesomely well on old hardware indeed! Give it a better browser and with the right hardware I see people daily driving this. :)

@obsoletepowercorrupts Ай бұрын

The floppy version could do with having a feature that expects the user to have a CDRW disk in a CDRW drive perhaps as a D drive (or CD0) or whatever as a default so that the user need not configure anything except have that CDRW ready in the drive upon booting from floppy. It is somewhat like the opposite thereby of how FreeNAS can boot from CD but write settings to a Floppy. The KolibriOS can then start dumping (albeit slowly) new information and software to that CDRW which might be a PATA or a SATA or a USB or a Parallel (ECP and EPP compatible) port IEEE1284. However, the computer could also expect as default to have a RS232 null-modem cable plugged into a com port _(com1 default perhaps, so that if there is a com2, the user can toggle that to be a mouse or com1)_ and then that serial com null-modem cable can be connected to some sort of FTP which could simply be another PC _(maybe running PuTTY such that the CDRW would have some software to expect a key gen from PuTTY to come on over between computers)_ sitting next to it, running Linux perhaps. The the floppy (if it is possible) could have a generic bluetooth driver on it which expects the EDR Bluetooth 2.1 dongle (with A2DP) of a particular known quantity commonplace chipset _(or a chipset emulated by means of a raspberry-pi GPIO 'pretending' to be a bluetooth dongle)_ plugged-in via a USB port or the IEEE1284 parallel port. This then overcomes scenarios where a USB is not functioning on account of it having an IOMMU or similar restriction or perhaps a computer has no USB ports at all. The reason why the bluetooth is (upon detection) suddenly useful is because not only can it allow something similar to a Personal Area Network to be set-up _(and written to that CDRW if not already on there in a known quantity folder perhaps simply named 'bluetoothdriveredr2dp")_ to connect to a different computer or bluetooth device that then provides internet, but also it allows a sound-card _(or microphone-and-earphones)_ to be connected to provide sound. That then also allows another avenue for IO because an extra application software written to the CDRW ready to execute could allow the _(RX and TX)_ receiving and sending of other data _(by sound as a square-wave)_ and applications and drivers or stacks. One last thing that could be present on the CDRW disk is an open source stack and driver for a TPM 8bit port to convert to an ISA slot with a USB port _(even USB1 or USB 1.1 version)_ so that an open-source homebrew ISA slot and USB port allows the connection of mass-storage, RJ45 ethernet ports and bluetooth dongles, USB hub and human interface devices _(all of which can get written incrementally to that CDRW)._ The "get out of catch22" loop here is the utilisation of sound-waves to send and receive data and that is in line wit the older way of doing things on systems that used tape and oftentimes a floppy disk in conjunction with that. The serial-port null modem _(and arguably a PCI slot or USB or maybe PCIe and ISA)_ should also expect a known quantity (probably Connexant) 56K modem because that thereby can serve as a serial interface and a Audio interface especially for the connection of an audio signal from another computer or a tape drive perhaps via a 3.5mm jack. It doesn't matter if it is slow and that is because primarily it would end up being used as a catch22-loop-breaker to get other devices (better ones) working, having written information to that CDRW drive of which 650Megabytes _(or even a 180 Megabytes on a 8cm CDRW the size of a floppy)_ should be more than enough capacity. A multisession CD might even be OK to use via CDR. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

That'd be quite something to implement for the devs! Back when I helped building a Linux live cd we offered the ability to create a file on harddisk that would contain a filesystem overlay to make changes permanent. That would work I guess, and not too hard to implement since they already mount the internal harddrive.

@obsoletepowercorrupts Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguy Just in case you are interpreting the above as such, what I have described wouldn't be a LiveCD. So it needs no software other than GPLv2 _(although attributed edits would be fine),_ nor a file-system like SquashFS or any similar thing. The ISA slot from TPM pin-out already exists, as does ISA to USB and can be made with a soldering iron or bought. A bluetooth driver and stack is similar in complexity to that of an ethernet NIC RJ45. A generic serial is fairly standard stuff. The floppy disk already has more complexity, so they devs would have the skills already. While a hard-drive is fine as an optional, it is not associated with the same ease of use fr a removable storage medium _(even though modern solutions have that like hot-pluggable)._ Instead, the above IO _(serial, bluetooth, known-quantity modem chipsets, IEEE1284 and RS232 etc.)_ are ways to have the user get things running from the floppy drive version as long as they use commonplace hardware or peripherals which have long been available. The instructions are on CISC CPU (and IEEE754) the Floppy-Disk OS already targets, perhaps for compression or signals. Perhaps you have misunderstood my comment above. In response to your video outro request, maybe it will be of use to the devs too. Have a great day. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

I don't think I understand you completely, but when you talk about ISA cards I think you're referring to even older hardware than KolibriOS can run on. The minimum is a Pentium. Yes Pentiums still had ISA slots but most of them also already had USB support so there would be no need for an ISA to USB adapter.

@obsoletepowercorrupts Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguy Here is some information to help you and KolibriOS and the users of things like it. It would seem you misunderstand the original comment. There are other ways this can be done but for instance, on YT the designer user TheRasteri _(naming "DISAppointment" as a gadget)_ made a Low Pin Count (LPC) to PC ISA Slot via Modern TPM Header. So, for example, there is no guarantee all IOMMU (for example) USB port types would work on Kolibri OS or that the USB oprts work at all _(like maybe they are broken or they work but the person simply cannot use them for some undisclosed reason)._ So the PLC-to-ISA adaptor is made and a ISA to USB card _(again homemade or bought but Open-Source, thereby always having avenues for compatibility updates to help all this)._ It can be done on a modern PC with a TPM pin-out header. My comment has no hate in it and I do no harm. I am not appalled or afraid, boasting or envying or complaining... Just saying. Psalms23: Giving thanks and praise to the Lord and peace and love. Also, I'd say Matthew6.

@realGamebreaker Ай бұрын

@@obsoletepowercorrupts I ain’t reading all of that

@tomyyoung2624 Ай бұрын

cool!

@jamescasterline1014 Ай бұрын

I suspect that the bootloader is also a raw uncompressor. I've heard of these floppies holding closer to 2Mb when not formatted. How much space does FAT take up?

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

I thought it was just a regular 1.44MB filesystem. I'll check that later today. I think you're right about it being an uncompressor. The boot time makes the floppy variant a mere gimmick though.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

Yeah it's just a 1.4MB fat fs, with directories and files in it. Seems uncompressed but that's hard to check from another OS. Linux just says "data" for the filetype of a binary.

@tibo5078 Ай бұрын

Leuke video!

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

Dank je wel!

@itsjustSev Ай бұрын

Heh, got my sub with this video :)

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

Awesome, thanks!

@laurencejohnson4106 Ай бұрын

It reminds me of Puppy Linux.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

I don't think Puppy ever had a full desktop on a floppy did it? But yeah Linux distros used to be a lot smaller. I remember fully functional 50MB distros... smallest today barely fit on a cd.

@laurencejohnson4106 Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguy You are correct and my comment could have been more precise, the desktop appearance reminded me of an older version of Puppy Linux, but I do not recall which version it was.

@ex-itguy Ай бұрын

@@laurencejohnson4106 it used to be a great distro for old hardware though 😄

@laurencejohnson4106 Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguyYes, that's true and there are still versions available, but in my opinion, the desktop is very dated.

@opfipip3711 Ай бұрын

@@ex-itguy smallest modern linux distro is AFAIK TinyCoreLinux at ~27MB with GUI. A lot more after installing firefox, tho.