DMS First ever Hackfest - ArcaOS and CoreOS

Education Interest Check
#1

HackFest Details

HackFests are held periodically, aiming at four or five a year.

During a HackFest, students and members interested in the Linux and esoteric operating systems can bring their systems in for a VCC mentor to help install Linux or OS of choice and provide a quick crash-course in using it and where to find more information. The original operating system is preserved, so that no data is lost during the installation, and the user is kept informed about what is happening at every step in the process. This way, people who are interested in the Linux or Esoteric operating system, but are unsure of where to start, can get introduced to the new OS in a friendly and data-safe environment.

Attendees to the HackFest can also ask the number of VCC Mentors any number of questions they may have regarding their decision to install Linux/Esoteric OSs, their current Linux/Esoteric OS installation, or about Linux/Esoteric OSs in general.

Attendees are encourage to bring a fresh USB thumb drive to the event. However one may be available to donating members upon registration.

About ArcaOS

ArcaOS is an operating system developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC derived from OS/2, based on the last release by IBM.[1] Development continues with a stated goal to add wider compatibility for more modern computing platforms, including UEFI and GPT support. It has limited PAE support using more than 4 GB of RAM to be utilized as a RAM disk[2] and utilizing its SMP kernel, supports up to 64 physical CPUs or real CPU cores (Hyper-threading is not recommended).

#3

IBM always thought that PCs would be best utilized as terminals that served the big mainframes it knew and loved. OS/2’s networking tools, available only in the Extended Edition, were mostly based on the assumption that PCs would connect to big iron servers that did the heavy lifting. This was a “top-down” approach to connecting computers together. In contrast, Microsoft approached networking from a “bottom-up” approach where the server was just another PC running Windows. As personal computing power grew and more robust versions of Windows like NT became available, this bottom-up approach became more and more viable. It’s certainly much less expensive.

And in an ironic twist, many entities have made the move to “virtual desktops”, wherein the “big iron” is in the server closet, and the desktop is a nearly dumb terminal which connects to it, and is useless without it…

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#4

It’s not exactly the first DMS hackfest as many used to hold events to crack open software/hardware back at LadyBird. Glad to see it start up again!

Windows 1.01 wow barely remember 1985

#6

ah… yeah I only visited LadyBird about twice before the move. So a more officially the “first Hackfest in the new space location”, maybe?

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#7

In the beginning, we had dumb terminals connected to big computers.

Along came the “personal computer revolution” and we had applications on separate machines.

Then came client/server and we were back to thin clients connected to big servers.

And then mobile devices and we return to apps on personal devices.

Now with the cloud, we swing back the other way.

The circle of life…

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#8

Exactly, but the difference now is that “the cloud” is the pc and server sitting inside the big iron with mobile being nothing more than an dumb terminal to AI.

Ok, I’ll be honest maybe that’s what’s going to be the case in the next decade we’ll have to see and push forward on some technology first before that. Personally I’m looking forward to the day when people are the cloud :wink:

https://blog.sfgateway.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Chobits-300x225.jpg

#9

The Microsoft description is not even remotely close to the history. First, Microsoft did not have ANY networking. That was added by third parties like 3Com. The first “local area network” was done by Netware. This was followed by IBM creating Net Bios which was only usefull for local area networks and IBM created Lan Manager a Netware competitor. The Share ability was first introduced by Netware and later added by IBM to the DOS offering. Windows came later and pier to pier Netbeui (Net Bios) was added shortly after Windows 3.1 was introduced. Windows was designed as a stand alone system client to Netware who was the king of local area networks at the time.

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#10

Welcome, gregp!

Hard to believe it’s been a year since that was posted. Seems like just yesterday…

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Anywho. Yeah. Microsoft didn’t invent networking, nor even plan for it in the early days.But it’s OK. They’ve made their way into that tent, set up shop, and refused to leave… Long Live Novell!!

DAMN! Now I have to re-look at that OS/2 shrine article.

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#11

True but we can not forget that much of that drive was coming out of the stuff Sun and BSD was driving after 4.2BSD added sockets in 1983. Which NetWare didn’t get until late 1991.

#13

At Xerox, we had a joke that we should become a non-profit because we developed so many things to make others rich.

  • Ethernet
  • WIMP user interface (Window, Icon, Mouse and Pull-down menu)
  • Xerography engine evolved into the laser printer
  • Telecopier, better known as the fax machine
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#14

Cannot forget what smalltalk did for the world. cough OOP, Ruby, MVC cough

#15

I know that Xerox did the first windowed OS in 71. I knew the people at DARPA in Arlington VA that invented the internet, mice, and the graphical OS in 1968. They published a paper on it which Xerox purchased. So, to be clear, Xerox was not the first. The actual first was DARPA. They ran a demonstration network between two floors of their building which used packets. They also made a mouse out of wood and did a cursory graphical desktop. My point was that Microsoft picked up none of that until the early 80s. By that time ethernet was widely in use and there were several graphical OSes in use. Before ethernet there were “packet drivers” available for DOS which you could use to build your own proprietary network. Dos was a stand alone OS without any networking unless you call being a dumb terminal over a serial connection a network. IBM did not have synchronous at the time either which was later added to allow main frame connections. By the way, I worked at IBM in 1972 where the first 8K transistor CPU was designed. All the terminals there were dedicated terminals. DOS was not on the horizon yet.

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#16

Was that Al Gore’s unit?

It is well known that DOS was a CP/M workalike which was in turn modeled after DEC minicomputer operating systems like TOPS-10.

#18

Al Gore? He actually pushed the Internet to be used for the “Information Super Highway” being touted at the beginning of the Clinton years. Otherwise Congress might have gone with a AT&T proprietary system they were pushing. Gore said the system should be allowed to be used for commercial purposes.

During the late 70s I knew a guy building Heath Kit computers which Exon would buy for $10,000 to use to model sonar images looking for oil. The kits cost around $2,000 to buy and had a Heath Kit OS.

#19

yep and sadily Digital Research beat Microsoft to a multiprocessing os and networking os in the early 80’s but no one used it since Dos came with the pc.

#20

The original IBM PC was of course IBM hardware with Microsoft DOS which was licensed. IBM then sold license rights for others to build “clone” PCs for a very small fee. Because it was IBM the PC took off. 3 years before the IBM/DOS PC was invented there was a large hobbist group making homemade PCs. Mostly single task machines. Apple invented the plug in card in the Apple PC before IBM made their PC and IBM coppied Apple with the design and bus that would allow add on cards. That combination of extensible hardware and the simple PC DOS and from IBM is what made the PC sales go crazy. IBM had modular main frames so they understood what a good idea that was and how to do it thanks to Wozniak. DOS was first invissoned (before Microsft had it) as a computer that could run Basic. They thought that would make the computer more usefull than the average hobbiest computer because you could write different programs for it. Basic came from IBM and was invented in 1961. When I worked at IBM the facility designed and manufactured the chips on site in a rather small steel building. Nothing fancy. I worked on the shop floor but would help in the inner secure main frame room and the actual chip design room. The chip design room had terminal which could be controlled by a light pen to lay out the circuits. There was also an automatic drawing machine that could draw the designs out on a 4 X 8 foot table with a piece of paper on it. Meanwille the raw memmory was banks of wires intersected with rings. You could vissually count the bits. The main storage was on 1 inch tape. We had 6 reals running at the same time. Most people had to submit their “jobs” through a window and return for the printed output later. Only a select few execs had a terminal. I soon learned programming and am still a programmer.