MenuetOS

From Free net encyclopedia

MenuetOS (also known as MeOS) is an operating system written in assembly language (FASM) by Ville Mikael Turjanmaa for the 64-bit and 32-bit x86 architecture computers. The MenuetOS kernel is a monolithic pre-emptive, real-time kernel and includes video drivers.

MenuetOS's development has focused on fast, simple, efficient implementation. It has a graphical desktop, games, and networking capabilities (TCP/IP stack), yet still fits on a single 1.44MB floppy disk. MenuetOS also facilitates easy, full-featured assembly language programming in an age when assembly languages are considered usable mainly for old and embedded systems. The simplicity of a Menuet application FASM source code is extraordinary.

MenuetOS was originally written for 32-bit x86 architectures and released under the GPL, thus many of its applications are distributed under the GPL. The 64-bit MenuetOS, often referred to as Menuet 64, remains a platform for learning 64-bit assembly language programming. 64-bit Menuet is distributed as freeware without the source code for core components. Menuet64 works smoothly in qemu_64 Emulator in Windows.

1 Networking
2 High-level language support
3 Distributions
4 External links
- 4.1 Menuet32 distros

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Networking

MenuetOS has networking capabilities, along with a working TCP/IP stack. Most of the networking code is written by Mike Hibbet.

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High-level language support

Even though the main focus of Menuet has been on making an environment for easy assembler programming, it is still possible to run software written in high-level languages on the assembler core. The biggest single effort towards high-level language support has been Jarek Pelczars work in bringing C libraries to Menuet.

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Distributions

While the 64-bit main distribution is now proprietary, several distributions of the 32-bit GPL MenuetOS still exist, including translations in Russian, Chinese, Czech, and Serbian.

Kolibri distro is probably the 32-bit distro with most active user/developer community. Most Kolibri developers are Russian. Most visible change in Kolibri is their file browser which is called X-Tree. Some of the software in Kolibri (X-Tree among them) are also available in English version of Kolibri, while some are available only in the Russian version of the distro.

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