The pleasure of Operating System Development

Why should we develop the underlying operating system? The following is a Japanese article. Very interesting.

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For independent OS developers, the following comments are often heard:

「 Isn't it silly to develop your own OS ?」

Depends on ???. This is like talking to laomei, who lives in California, saying, "The best way to cook a sushi is a California roll !」 I feel uncomfortable. Because OS development is particularly interesting in program development. I want to ask, "Do you really know that ?」

So why is OS development so interesting? I tried to summarize my personal opinions.

1) You are the real pleasure of God who creates the world.

The OS designer is God. Starting with nothing, we can create the world a little bit. Soon, the world depicted based on your own ideas has not become a reality. It is exactly "Make World ". No material or item is required. You don't even need a computer. With paper and pencil, or just in your mind, you can also create your own OS world.

2) sense of control after completing the system

For example, press the keyboard key. At that moment, the keyboard was interrupted, the kernel, scheduler, shell, and output to the screen. All the Code ran in my mind. All of these results are obtained as self-created results. The feeling of integration with this system and the feeling of control, this is not the experience of other programming.

3) technical difficulty and possibility

The Study of OS was deemed to be over long ago, but not so. Because it is necessary to support constantly updated hardware, multiple environments, and operating systems. The OS technology is very profound, and many other technologies are not explored. The study of OS cannot satisfy.

4) Freedom of Software Design

The kernel is between user requirements and hardware constraints, and there are many design constraints. However, from a perspective of conversion, the kernel can be said to be free from all interference from other software. That is to say, the kernel can be freely designed without being restricted by the software design of others. It is up to you to decide how to finish it.

5) charm of hardware Programming

Programming hardware is difficult. It is not based on specifications, timing and order issues, but a strange way to access hardware. This sense of accomplishment is hard to express when these troubles can be controlled as you think.

6) The Joy of human intelligence

When I write my own OS, I feel that there are also many excellent talents who are troubled by the same problems in the world and then solved. This may be because of the early history of research in the OS field. When you develop your own OS, your kernel code can be understood 10 times earlier than when you only read some code for research, and enjoy 100 times of fun.

It is indeed very time-consuming to develop the OS because of your interest. I knew it was silly. However, it is true that "Sushi is the most delicious in tuna's abdomen 」. Once you learn the charm of it, you can no longer be satisfied with the California volume.

Http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kohtani/20070403/p1: