How long does it take to make an OS?
In 1981 Microsoft bought the rights and source code to QDOS and has been adding functionality to it ever since. There are points in development when enough has been added that the version number gets bumped up, or there has been enough of a rewrite when the version number gets a major bump up. It's never done, there are just points in development that new key functions work or new groups of hardware are supported. ~ roboman What are good places to learn about OS development? Try these links:http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDevIndex.html
http://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page
~ Benjamin
What should I know before approaching OS development? It's likely that you will need to understand how to program in the C language. After you obtain a robust understanding of C, move on towards learning assembly language (namely NASM, as it supports many things required to develop an OS) ~ Benjamin What is a bootloader? ... What is a kernel? ... What is a filesystem? ... What is a driver? ... What is a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)? ... What is the most simple, easy and harmless way to test-run an OS? The simple easy way is with an emulator. There is an extremely small chance that something might happen to your computer and a reasonably good chance that at some point the emulator isn't going to do the same thing real hardware does. At some point you need to test on real hardware. It's best to have a test system that doesn't have any thing on it, where booting from a floppy is probably the easiest place to start. ~ roboman Where can I find a good free emulator? Try Bochs:http://bochs.sourceforge.net/
~ Benjamin
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