Create your own operating system!

Nearly every true computer geek has, at some point, wanted to write an operating system. However, writing a custom kernel and other bits takes years of study, experience and patience. If you intend to keep your sanity, then the best course of action is to use someone else's code.

Cosmos*, or C# open source managed operating system, is a pre-made kernel that provides you with "OS legos" that allow you to quickly and easily create your own operating system.

You will need:

@ Microsoft Visual C# 2008.

@ A knowledge of the C# programming language (don't worry if you don't have this, it's a pretty easy language).

@ The Cosmos user kit (milestone 4).

Step 1 Getting the software

Let's do a run down of the necessary software mentioned earlier.

Microsoft Visual C# can be downloaded free if you get the express edition. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/ You can also download the entire Visual Studio including visual basic and visual c++ as an ISO image (these can be tricky, see below for details on reading ISO images). Even on a blazing fast computer, downloading visual studio will take two hours at most, though.

WARNING: make sure that you get the 2008 edition and not 2010. This may seem backwards, but the Cosmos user kit has yet to support 2010.

The cosmos user kit is the platform that we will write our OS in. It's an all-in-one micro-kernel operating system that is written in 100% C#. You can download it at http://cosmos.codeplex.com/releases/view/35194



A note about ISO images:

If you opted to download the entire visual studio, then you're going to need to read the ISO image file. An ISO image is a map of a virtual DVD, using the same encoding as any other disk. You have two option: Use a program like nero or roxio to burn the image to a CD-ROM then insert that disk into your computer and download it (The latest Windows XP comes with Roxio, and Windows 7 comes with Nero pre-installed. Other than that, you will almost certainly find something on your computer that will burn a CD. Explore a bit), or you can use Daemon tools lite edition to read the file directly.


Daemon tools lite is free and can be found at http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/downloads

A: After downloading it, running the setup program, and re-booting, fire up Daemon tools and click Add File (the picture of the CD with a plus sign).

B: Find the image, and open it.

C: Now, select the file and click Mount. A popup (see pic')  will show you some options, click "run setup.hta". This will install Visual Studio. Alternatively, you can find setup.hta in the virtual drive that was created, located in My Computer under Devices with removable storage.

Comments

[sci4me]

Alrighty, so I am trying to use Visual C# 2010 Express with the newest version of Cosmos. So it works, but when I build it, I get an error. And that's with the default code! I did add refrences to Cosmos.Hardware and all that and it still doesn't work! The error is about Cosmos.Hardware.Hardware... cant find it? Do you know of any way to fix this? If I use MS4 is 2008 Express, it works like a charm. But I want to use the newest version! Any ideas? Also, thanks for a great tutorial! It helped a lot! :)

[skatergirlcat]

hey dungeon runner or anyone else i cant enter the link to cosmos dose anyone have the file???

[imBobertRobert]

can you do it in notepad or notepad++ ? you can write BASIC in there.

[dungeon runner]

I admit I still don't know much about how Cosmos operates, and I think you should look at the cosmos website at least, and there are a bunch of youtube tutorials on using Cosmos with languages like VisualBASIC, so try learning some things with those (If you can figure out how to use it with VB, I'm sure the same principal applies with other languages). I'm pretty sure BASIC isn't based on .NET though, so maybe think about picking up C#.

On the other hand, microsoft Small Basic is pretty much the same and it's .NET. Good luck finding out how to make it work with Cosmos though.

Happy coding.

[dungeon runner]

You misunderstand the target audience here. This is for: @ People who want to write an OS but don't have the skill level to muck about with kernels/assembly. It is not for: @ People who can and are willing to get into the nitty-gritty of OS development. @ People who want to simply make a quick "OS" to have it as a practical tool (for that, you can try SuseStudio). All in all, Cosmos users don't make OSs for their practicality. They make them because it's fun and easy. (Also, Cosmos is a regular OS with a micro-kernel, bootloader, etc. It most definitely is a "real" OS). -Y

[Guard13007]

This is interesting, but I've heard from many in the business that C# isn't a good language to use. Do you know of some good example codes in C/C++?

[dungeon runner]

The thing I forgot to mention is that you can literally boot Cosmos from any language based on .NET framework. So C++, Visual Basic, even Small Basic can all be used to write an OS.

-Y

[account3r2]

There is periods after the links. you have to get rid of them

[PS118]

Why not just use Linux? It's a real OS, you can see the source, and you can acutally run stuff on it! Oh yeah, and if it's the ability to play with it inside Windows, that's attractive, google CoLinux.