Open-Node.net

Let’s get the obvious out of the way from the outset - Microsoft is the absolute epitome of evil - they boil little children in hydrochloric acid, torture puppies and feed kittens to their blood sucking hell hounds. All are undeniable facts, but let’s not dwell too deeply on Microsoft the company; what about their bad operating system, Windows? In its defence, the latest version, Windows XP, is very stable, though it’s still extremely buggy, bloated, needs updating constantly and is riddled with gaping security holes. This is just a small sample of the reasons which explain why many disgruntled Windows users are determined to jump ship. The obvious migration path would involve one flavour of Linux or another. Put Linux out of your mind; it’s almost considered mainstream these days - I want to introduce you to some really alternative operating systems, some of which you are unlikely to have even heard about.

Admittedly most of them aren’t yet mature enough to be considered ‘Windows beaters’, but that shouldn’t stop you experimenting while still running Windows as your main operating system. The first thing you have to understand about really alternative operating systems is that they aren’t designed to dominate the world - that’s Bill Gate’s territory. Believe it or not, plenty of people actually get a buzz out of coding their own OS and seeing it come to life before their eyes - to them it’s a challenging hobby and the thrill of discovery is reward enough. To others, writing a new OS from the ground up forms part of a university computer science course and therefore they are driven by the desire to get good grades and go on to secure employment in their chosen field. Some of the most ambitious OS mavericks see their work as a means of ‘curing’ the existing solutions - they feel they are in some way inefficient, poorly implemented or aesthetically unappealing, for example, and that they can do better.

There is an entire smorgasbord of alternative operating systems out there, and if you were to systematically follow the links from a directory listing site you may quickly become disillusioned - many of them are extremely primitive, and are only intended to perform highly specific tasks which are of little interest to the average home PC user. What I’ll be focusing on is those operating systems which are functional on desktop computers - those which can be used to send and receive email, browse the web and write documents for instance. Some of these are small enough to fit on a single floppy disk while others occupy hundreds of megabytes. Push your prejudices aside; quantity has no bearing on quality in the heretical realm of alternative operating systems no matter what Microsoft would have you believe. Similarly, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a supercomputer to run a modern, powerful operating system - you’d be surprised by how meagre the minimum specifications can be.

Zeta Operating Systems
Syllable Operating Systems
SkyOS Operating Systems
ReactOS Operating Systems

• ReactOS Operating Systems
• Luthans
• SkyOS Operating Systems
• Zeta Operating Systems
• System Maintenance. Cleaning for your registry.

March 28th 2004 Posted to   Windows