Can one dude program a operating system?

[buklu]

Within 10 years

[PocketNerd]

Sure, but only because that's a super open-ended question. Usually asked by someone who doesn't know what an Operating System actually is and how simple they can be.

[tp95112]

A guy name Terry Davis sorta did

[jake9000]

If said dude already has a decade of experience I think he can. 

https://wiki.osdev.org/Required_Knowledge 

You'll also note that these days, creating an OS requires you to use an already established computer as a tool. It's kinda like how all the manufacturing devices that build CPUs are in turn controlled by other CPUs. You aren't gonna truly start from scratch unless you are a true visionary. 

[LogicalDrm]

Guy named Linus Torvalds also kinda did. But that was 30 years ago. Hardware is bit more advanced now, but I doubt that will be issue if you have 10 years to give. Tordvalds did it in ~3 years, but OS is based on unix clone Minix.

 

And yes, its more commonly known as Linux.

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, LogicalDrm said:

Guy named Linus Torvalds also kinda did. But that was 30 years ago.

This would trigger Richard Stallman so much is not even funny...actually it would be fucking hilarious.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

7 hours ago, Zaphryx said:

Ah, yes, the infamous TempleOS. As mentioned by an above reply, it was programmed from around 2003-2013, by a man named Terry Davis. Apparently God had told him in a revelation that the "third temple" was to be a computer operating system, and so, TempleOS was born. Curiously enough, it had absolutely no support for the internet, or even networking. It was relatively lightweight (presumably so God's OS could run on most anything), and a maximum of 640x480 resolution, and a 16-colour gamut. Not the best for media creators, but I doubt Heaven has many 7980XEs to drive an 8k display, too.

A very interesting video about him if you've got 90 minutes

 

[mariushm]

You can in less than a year... by programming the absolute minimums required to have something considered an operating system ... memory management, drivers for devices, running multiple command line applications and managing switching between applications and so on.

 

The modern conveniences of an graphical interface, supporting things like mice etc are not a requirement for an OS.

[LogicalDrm]

41 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

This would trigger Richard Stallman so much is not even funny...actually it would be fucking hilarious.

Do you happen to know if Stallman has finished his OS already?

[AngryBeaver]

It really depends on the language used. You can program and OS rarely quickly with a high level language, but if you wanted to use something low level like machine language it would take way longer than 10 years on your own.

[Uttamattamakin]

Depends.  Linus Torvalds was a certified genius.  Whole companies and organizations, and governments have probably tried to write their own proprietary in house OS.  Most use Windows, Linux, or some variant of Unix (i.e. Mac OSX) which is a lot like Linux.  It's just not that easy to create something that is really practical. 

 

So technically it can and has been done.  In one case it has changed computing forever.  Most of the time it may just be an academic exercise if it is done.  Practically speaking no it's not something that it makes sense to do. 

[NunoLava1998]

Yes; as long as you put some effort into it. See ToaruOS. 

[NunoLava1998]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

You can in less than a year... by programming the absolute minimums required to have something considered an operating system ... memory management, drivers for devices, running multiple command line applications and managing switching between applications and so on.

 

The modern conveniences of an graphical interface, supporting things like mice etc are not a requirement for an OS.

If you put a lot of effort into it and are already pretty experienced. That typically takes a lot more than 'in less than a year'.

[tp95112]

 

 

 

6 hours ago, orbitalbuzzsaw said:

snip

Its sad he died though. Although he was crazy he was a smart

[Sauron]

5 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Depends. Linus Torvalds was a certified genius.

If you wanted to make a brand new OS that was anywhere near competitive today it would take a lot more than being a genius unfortunately. 30 years ago a practical OS could be simple enough that a single person would be able to program the kernel (at least an alpha version, Linux started getting community contributions very early on). Nowadays making something from scratch that someone would actually use on your own is impossible.

[Mira Yurizaki]

It depends on how in-depth you want to consider an operating system. If you consider an operating system to be just the kernel, I'd argue this is doable by a single person. Linus Torvalds did this with Linux. Andrew Tanenbaum did it with MINIX. However, if you consider an operating system to include more features like a network stack, a file system, or a graphics interface, then this becomes harder for a single person to do.

[Breadpudding]

Technically I can make an operating system within a day. That doesn't mean it'll be a good operating system, just a usable one(maybe).

[DeScruff]

As others have said. Depends on what you consider an OS.
If your talking just A way to Operate a System, As in a command line. That is certainly possible and has happened in the past like Gary Kildall, with CP/M - which was the most popular OS in it's day before DOS. Im also fairly sure people have rewritten the OSes for 80s machines as well.

Assuming you mean from scratch, not built on top of some bare bones linux distro, exc.
If your talking a basic OS like DOS, BASIC, or CP/M for modern hardware? I'd think that is certainly in the realm of possibility. And certainly if given 10 years.
If your talking 'Windows 3.1' esk - TempleOS is the best example.

If your talking a full featured OS, with high resolution and full color graphics, support for a bunch of hardware configs, internet, media playback, exc. Probably not.

[harryk]

In the Operating Systems class I took we coded most of the basic pieces that make up an OS: CPU job handling, multi-threading, memory management, file/disk paging and management, basic implementation of a kernel and command line. Granted this was all in C and run as a simulation on a Linus box so it would take a bit more to actually get it running independently on its own hardware. 

 

I found it very educational. Its fascinating how the various components are so simple yet the entire system is so complex.