Operating systems

I do run and develop a few operating systems, some in-house, some open-source for anyone to use.

koyuwatch

An internally used RTOS based on the Watchy firmware. It’s a simple OS with support for weather information, time syncing and also includes support for paying via Revolut and contact information for people to scan.

Status: working

Architecture(s): Watchy based on the ESP32 microcontroller

First version: Aug 12 2024

Use case(s): Smartwatches

License: proprietary

BreezeOS

BreezeOS is a proprietary operating system designed for i386 (and later) retro computers. Loaded into the memory of the machine it supports switching out floppy disks during runtime. This allows a user to load the operating system using one floppy and use another floppy for programs. The only supported resolution is 640×360 using 16 colors. The operating system was based on MikeOS, but has later been fully rewritten and extended with ACPI support and other features. It’s heavy use of BIOS registers for system calls makes it unportable to other architectures and platforms. The operating system is like a mix between Unix and DOS. It doesn’t support sound other than PC speakers and drawing directly on the screen is also only possible through a video driver implemented into the application. Due to the bad design programs are limited to 32kb in memory.

Status: working

Architecture: x86, i386 and later

First version: circa 2013

Use case(s): Retro computers, virtual machines, general purpose OS

License: proprietary

Sharpy

An operating system written in C# using the Cosmos SDK. Similar to BreezeOS it’s an operating system aimed at x86 retro computing. It tried to replace it, but ultimately failed due to the lack of a proper filesystem driver or fully working init system. The idea was that due to the codebase being in C# rather than raw assembly language it would’ve been easier to maintain.

Status: abandoned

Architecture: x86

First version: circa 2018

Use case(s): Retro computing, successor to Breeze OS

Currently that’s all I could remember. More to come!