Nearly every true computer geek has, at some point, wanted to write an operating system. However, writing a custom kernel and other bits takes years of study, experience and patience. If you intend to keep your sanity, then the best course of action is to use someone else's code.
Cosmos, or C# open source managed operating system, is a pre-made kernel that provides you with "OS legos" that allow you to quickly and easily create your own operating system.
You will need:
- Microsoft Visual C# 2008.
- A knowledge of the C# programming language (don't worry if you don't have this, it's a pretty easy language).
- The Cosmos user kit (milestone 4).
Let's do a run down of the necessary software mentioned earlier.
Microsoft Visual C# can be downloaded free if you get the express edition. You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/ You can also download the entire Visual Studio including visual basic and visual c++ as an ISO image (these can be tricky, see below for details on reading ISO images). Even on a blazing fast computer, downloading visual studio will take two hours at most, though.
WARNING: make sure that you get the 2008 edition and not 2010. This may seem backwards, but the Cosmos user kit has yet to support 2010.
The cosmos user kit is the platform that we will write our OS in. It's an all-in-one micro-kernel operating system that is written in 100% C#.You can download it at http://cosmos.codeplex.com/releases/view/58275
A note about ISO images:
If you opted to download the entire visual studio, then you're going to need to read the ISO image file. An ISO image is a map of a virtual DVD, using the same encoding as any other disk. You have two option: Use a program like nero or roxio to burn the image to a CD-ROM then insert that disk into your computer and download it (The latest Windows XP comes with Roxio, and Windows 7 comes with Nero pre-installed. Other than that, you will almost certainly find something on your computer that will burn a CD. Explore a bit), or you can use Daemon tools lite edition to read the file directly.
Daemon tools lite is free and can be found at http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/downloads.
Express users need to install the Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell run time.
Click on the Link below for further steps:
