My preferred OS is?

[C1ay]

Who picked other?

 

max4236 It's a public poll so you only have to click on the numbers in the poll to see who voted for what.

[freeztar]

Oh, right. :) Thanks.

 

So Max, which do you prefer?

[C1ay]

how about an eisboch, Schneider Aventinus, anyone? :)

 

That or a Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel. I like my beer he way I like my coffee, strong :sun:

[alexander]

Hehe, Clay, so you like that dopperlobock, aka eisbock lite :shrug:... Eisboch is ice-distilled doppelbock, basically they freeze some of the water off, which makes it even stronger, both in alcohol content and flavor :naughty:

[C1ay]

Sounds good. I can't recall having Eisboch but have made another beverage in a similar way. We used to freeze hard apple cider and then poor off the part that didn't freeze. We called it applejack. It is kind of like an apple brandy.

[CraigD]

My favorite kind of operating system is more of a high-level concept than an actual software. Instances of them have existed, and arguably still run in odd little imbedded systems (eg: the “brain” of various toys, appliances, remote controls), antique Apple 2s and other “museum computers”, but are in the large relics of the 1970s and ‘80s. The example with which I’m most familiar was the implementation of MIIS specific to 32-bit DG MV-series Eclipses. Though usually considered a programming language, not an OS, when run without any OS (other than a simple loader), as it was on MVs, it effectively is an operating system.

 

I’d wouldn’t be surprised if not a single instance of MIIS or it’s proprietary cousin, MAGIC, are running without an underlying OS anywhere in the world now. There’s a DOS version of MIIS that’s occasionally run by archeo-computing enthusiasts, and major implementations of MAGIC running under Windows in my very own data center, but they’re so feature poor (for example, no network card support, so no networking other than actual wires between serial ports of nearby machines, or serial port to a modern terminal server) that they’re nearly useless as a modern computing platform.

 

The defining characteristic of my “dream OS” is that it entirely isolates applications from the underlying hardware - CPU, memory and storage, but not IO ports - (with the possible exception of restricted-use keyword/services used to extend the OS programmatically). All such references are completely abstract – high-level commands in place of compiled object code, with no explicit memory pointers or calculated displacement into memory. Application source code may be tokenized, but not compiled – the OS is, essentially, a language interpreter.

 

I could – and have – gone on for thousands of words about the virtues of such a platform, but won’t here and now. It’s currently, to the best of my knowledge, vaporware and a personal vision, so I’d do best to keep the waxing to a minimum until I’ve actually got it at least running in emulation under some real-world OS, then shake the world (no delusions of grandeur here, not at all … :eek:)