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by knowledge-clay 1070 days ago
It's much, much, much simpler and more compact.

The core system is about 8000 lines of code. The C compiler is 1400. Its memory footprint is extremely small (1MB to have a C compiler running on bare metal in the PC architecture). From here, you have a system capable of building C programs as well as bootstrapping itself.

This is level of simplicity is staggering and empowering -- it is completely reasonable to read and understand every single line of code in Dusk OS. This would be incomprehensible in something like Debian.
2 comments
qwytw 1070 days ago
How are these advantages in a post-apocalyptic world over any other OS that most people could actually use and do useful things with?
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fb03 1070 days ago
I think you are missing the point. You might not have access to any modern hardware + modern, multi MLoC operating system medium/ftp server/whatever to boot in a post-apocalyptic world. This would at least provide some level of computation on simple devices.

Even if you do have access to a modern computer which is not fried, you still need a whole bunch of devices, mass storage stuff and mains electricity to be able to boot it, and then on to find and boot some software.

The OS above would run in things like graphing calculator cpus, 8-bit video games and other "almost non-computer" devices which actually have simple but useable CPUs. It would be better than going back to the 1900s.

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knowledge-clay 1070 days ago
I would frame it differently, "collapse" can mean any number of conditions that exist in the world today -- internet access that is limited, censored/liable of being shut down, or nonexistent. Same with electricity. We also rely on institutions that may or may not represent your interests to build software that you rely upon (e.g. the decline of search, the locking-down of major social media platforms, etc), and so on.

Virgil's "collapse" mindset, to me, is about building resilience and independence, and IMO Dusk OS is fantastic at this purpose.

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Gordonjcp 1070 days ago
If you're writing it in Forth, why bother having a C compiler?
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knowledge-clay 1070 days ago
There is a lot more software that currently exists written in C than in Dusk OS's forth dialect. The C compiler allows Dusk to run this software (once it's ported over)
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jacquesm 1070 days ago
The FORTH core allows Dusk OS to be ported with an absolute minimum of work. It's like an abstract machine language.
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