The JNode project has released a new version of their Java-based operating system. Apart from a small nanokernel written in assembler, JNode is written entirely in Java. The reason for undertaking this effort is to provide those that like the idea of a Java operating system something to work with. Obviously, version 0.2.8 improves JNode in several areas.
The areas of improvement are neatly summarised in the release announcement:
The main focus of this release is general stability improvements and bug fixes and also reflects the current status of several major features in active development such as: isolates, Bjorne shell and complete support for HFS+. Significant progress has been made with the integration of the remaining parts of OpenJDK and the JNode class library has been updated to OpenJDK6 b13. JNode now builds with both JDK 1.6 and OpenJDK6+IceadTea and by the means of Linux and KVM it’s possible to set up a well performing and completely free open source development and test environment. Mauve based regression testing is being introduced and various test-suites consolidated into a distributed automatic regression testing infrastructure. As a result of these activities real world applications and frameworks like Jetty, Quercus, Groovy, JEdit and many others are getting usable under JNode.
The changelog provides a more detailed overview of the changes, and you can also take a look at some screenshots. Get the new release from the download page.
13 Comments
This JNode thing keeps looking more and more interesting to me.
Screenshot link seems to be incorrect.
http://www.jnode.org/node/132
From http://www.jnode.org/node/51 :
“To make JNode as fast as possible, we’ll concentrate on doing things as smart as possible, but still to do it in Java.”
🙂
yup, an obvious Freudian slip there ;)
a desktop environment in metal sounds even funnier to me
Why?
Fun!
So what’s the architecture like? It’s a microkernel, I got that much. Is it being designed like UNIX? Are they leveraging any of the unique properties of having an OS written in a managed language, such as Singularity is taking advantage of? Hmm, not much on the site that answers these questions.
I suppose I could look at the code … I assume something BSD-looking awaits.
It is in assembler, I don’t think nobody will ever try (again) to write a POSIX compatible OS in assembler, it is Java anyway, not C so I don’t think they need posix API anyway, java is crossplateform by design so they should have everything the need (in therm of API) in Java itself. It is not a bad idea after all, Java on Unix and Windows mostly suck, if they can make someting dedicated to run java apps, it -may- run faster a little.
P.S: I hate Java
Never liked Java, and the screen shots look ugly. You gotta commend them for their efforts though…
I love Java but why make products that are proof of technology? Why not make good products, forget the underlying tech. I want to use a good product, if its in Java thats nice, but as a end-user dont care.
why make stuff that is proof of technology? Maybe for educational purposes? maybe to prove its possible? maybe it’s fun?
why must people crap all over a project just because it won’t be the next Windows/OSX/Linux/etc killer.
high five to the people behind jNode. Job well done.
Every project starts as a proof of technology… WHY? Because that’s the way the things start!
Have you developed 100000 lines of code with no test; have you compiled them and voila, was your product finished?
NO; because everything starts slowly, with a lot of proofs… step by step.
The end-user wants everything working fine and properly, but s/he does not appreciate all the underlying technology behind the scenes… and there is where the magic lies! ;)