Möbius (Operating System)

The Möbius operating system is an open source operating system for the IA-32 platform (Intel i386 and compatible). The authors focused the development on some very important points for a modern operating system. The main objectives of Möbius are:

• Make it extensible enough to make it easy to develop new device drivers and technologies
• Keep the kernel as small and modular as possible
• Support existing applications whenever possible
• Stay simple enough to have a user install and configure a Mobius system without having to learn anything

If he stays true to these goals, he can become a real competitor for Linux who, according to the author of Möbius, "is struggling to keep up with modern ideas about operating system development".

Möbius supports SMP, multithreading and asynchrony of low-level I/O requests. Many "home-made" operating systems, that is non-professional, take inspiration from its plug and play device management of device drivers due to its high modularity, extensibility and its technologically advanced functions, even if they are 4 years old. The format of executables and shared libraries (DLL) is the same as in Windows (PE format). It can be said that the only thing missing from this operating system that is really well thought out are the drivers and applications. Right now it seems like an abandoned project, when a little extra effort would have been enough to really create a competitor for Linux and for Windows.

One of the "home-made" operating systems that was inspired by the management of Möbius requests is Jeko, a kernel still in its infancy.

Notes

You need to use a program that supports the Gzip compression format to decompress the file. The author suggests using WinImage or Cygwin to write the image to the floppy disk. You can also use the DOS RaWrite program.

Mobius Information

Developer: Tim Robinson
SO family: None
Last release: Release 5 (03/14/2004)
Kernel type: Monolithic-Modular
License type: Free software
License: GNU GPL
Development stage: Currently no longer in development
Website: mobius.sourceforge.net