JavaOS

[Markus Peter]

I tried emailing this mailing list earlier, but strangely, my message
did not arrive - well - here it is again - I hope you now do not
get two copies of it.

Ok. I guess it's also time for a statement from me.
I was one of the initiators of this project.

In the mean time, we already have found somebody,
who will create a new kernel specifically for a Java OS.
This one will be very small, as a Java based OS eliminates
a lot of needs (process switching, protected memory etc...)

As soon as we have that OS, we will need a port of Kaffe
for it - I've chosen Kaffe as JIT Compiler for this OS,
because it's free and because I once needed a JIT Compiler
for Linux, and I was very disappointed of the Blackdown port,
while Kaffe appeared very excellent to me (even at that time
- it was version 0.8.4).

Unfortunately the person who will create our OS cannot
port Kaffe himself, as he's got a Java source code license
from Sun, and we want a Java OS free from any copyrights
ASAP.

That's where we will need some help from one of you for sure.
Most of the volunteers right now are experienced Java programmers,
but they do not have enough C experience to port Kaffe or it
is too long ago they used C. So if one of you is interested in
this project and would be willing to port kaffe to that OS kernel,
as soon as it is created, please contact me.
I guess without the help of one of you this project is determined
to die.

(Hehe - please do not flame me with telling me, that I should
not try to create an OS without having a clue of it, in the first place :)

And one last note to Bruce Montague:
Hurd did not fail yet - in fact the first versions of Hurd were released
some months ago.
And yes - I know, lots of people say, microkernel designs have failed,
but on the other hand there are also papers citing that they are useful.
WinNT uses the MachKernel, NextStep does, Rhapsody will do.
But that does not matter anymore - after all we now have found
a developer who will create an exclusive kernel for us.

I wanted to use a microkernel in the beginning, because most
people participating in the project at the beginning were only Java
developers but were not very experienced with C programming.
So I though we should take something existing, maybe a micro-kernel,
because it is not bloated too much with unnecessary stuff.
After all a true kernel for a Java OS need not do much.


Markus Peter (Developer), SPiN GmbH
warpi at spin.de   -    http://www.spin.de
Java, Perl and Web Site Development
Unite for Java!  - http://www.javalobby.org/