This week I’m getting really geeky with a
drive partitioning and cloning tool written
with an alternative operating system.
OTW Other Than Windows. It was made
with Visopsys (VISual OPerating SYStem).
Here is a link to the ISO and floppy image
for the tool and a link to the OS it came
from. Now if you really want impress and
confuse your fellow geeks, I’m including
links to a few other alternative and some-
what obscure operating systems. You can
load them up on a PC, leave it running and
freak out that special arrogant geek who
irritates you.
[8~{} Uncle Monster
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Partition Logic ver 0.69
http://partitionlogic.org.uk/index.html
ABOUT PARTITION LOGIC
Partition Logic is a free hard disk partitioning and data management
tool. It can create, delete, erase, format, defragment, resize, copy,
and move partitions and modify their attributes. It can copy entire
hard disks from one to another.
Partition Logic is free software, available under the terms of the GNU
General Public License. It is based on the Visopsys operating system.
It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system,
independent of your regular operating system.
Partition Logic is intended to become a free alternative to such
commercial programs as Partition Magic, Drive Image, and Norton Ghost.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Partition Logic supports most basic PC hardware without any additional
work or configuration. It has very modest (by today’s standards)
requirements:
* Pentium-class or better x86 processor. Supports all modern
Intel x86 and AMD processors.
* 32 megabytes RAM memory (16 megabytes if operating in text mode).
* IDE (ATA) hard disks for partitioning.
* IDE (ATAPI) CD-ROM drive, if booting from the CD version.
* Standard PC floppy disk, if booting from the floppy disk version.
* For graphics mode, a VESA 2-compatible graphics card with linear
framebuffer support.
* USB or PS/2-syle keyboard.
* USB or PS/2-style mouse, if operating in graphics mode.
LIMITATIONS
Partition logic has the following limitations:
* Does not work with some SATA hard disks
* No hardware support for non-USB SCSI hard disks
* Supports only DOS/Windows-style MBR partition tables (used on
nearly all IBM PC-compatibles). No support for Sun or BSD disk
labels, or EFI/GPT tables used on Itanium and Intel Mac platforms.
* Cannot format partitions as NTFS or EXT3. Can format as FAT
(12/16/32), EXT2, and Linux swap.
* Cannot resize FAT or EXT filesystems. Can resize NTFS (Windows
XP) and Linux swap.
* No hardware support for serial mice
* No hardware support for PCMCIA
These limitations are intended to be fixed in future releases.
================================
Visopsys 0.69
http://visopsys.org/index.html
Visopsys (VISual OPerating SYStem) is an alternative operating system
for PC-compatible computers, written “from scratch”, and developed
primarily by a single hobbyist programmer since late 1997.
Visopsys is free software and the source code is available under the
terms of the GNU General Public License. The libraries and header
files are licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License.
The bulk of Visopsys is a fully multitasking, 100% protected mode,
virtual-memory, massively-monolithic-style kernel. Added to this is a
bare-bones C library and a minimal suite of applications — together
comprising a small but reasonably functional operating system which
can operate natively in either graphical or text modes. Though it’s
been in continuous development for a number of years, realistically
the target audience remains limited to operating system enthusiasts,
students, and assorted other sensation seekers. The ISO and floppy
images available from the download page can install the system, or
operate in ‘live demo’ mode.
=================================
SkyOS build 6915
http://www.skyos.org/?q=node
The Sky Operating System, or SkyOS, is an operating system written for
x86-based personal computers. SkyOS was created in 1996 by Robert
Szeleney as a small bootloader. In the past 8 years, SkyOS has evolved
into a full-featured, modern operating system, with a goal to be the
easiest to use desktop operating system available for the average
computer user. The development staff has also increased to include
business, software, and graphics developers.
=================================
Syllable 0.6.5
http://web.syllable.org/pages/index.html
So what exactly is Syllable and what can it do for you? We are
producing two operating systems: Syllable Desktop and Syllable Server.
They are meant for different roles, but they share the goals of being
as easy to use as possible while still being very powerful. Syllable
Desktop is meant to run on personal computers. It is fully graphical,
so it is easy to operate for people who don’t care about diving into
technical details. At the same time, it also offers a traditional
command prompt environment that is well-known to technical-minded
people as an extra, so nobody loses out. Syllable Server is meant to
run on server computers - the ones that quietly do their work in
backrooms and that you can connect to over the network with your
personal computer. Thus, Syllable Server and Syllable Desktop are made
to work together. You can happily use them on their own and with many
different systems, but used together they will provide extra
advantages. For example, if you want to set up a network of machines,
it is easier if both desktop and server computers are alike, at least
in their software. There will be less you will need to learn and
remember to accomplish your tasks