Smallest Os With Gui

[iGuest 3]

It is very possible, as a matter of fact 2mb is alot of space when you just need barebones functionality (usb, cdrom, tcp/ip, web browser, ftp, text/hex editor, file browser)

I made a fully compiled GUI in QB4.5 that uses a slimmed down MS-DOS. The GUI is only 100 Kb compiled and I've added some primitive hardware support for usb and Gigabit Ethernet and draws graphics directly by poking directly to main video memory. It also never uses more than 4 megabytes of ram unless dealing with large graphics in excess of the screen resolution.

The whole package fits on one floppy. 640x480x256, 80386DX or better, 4Mb of ram or more

-reply by That GuyKeywords: smallest gui os

[iGuest 3]

It is very possible, as a matter of fact 2mb is alot of space when you just need barebones functionality (usb, cdrom, tcp/ip, web browser, ftp, text/hex editor, file browser)

I made a fully compiled GUI in QB4.5 that uses a slimmed down MS-DOS. The GUI is only 100 Kb compiled and I've added some primitive hardware support for usb and Gigabit Ethernet and draws graphics directly by poking directly to main video memory. It also never uses more than 4 megabytes of ram unless dealing with large graphics in excess of the screen resolution.

The whole package fits on one floppy. 640x480x256, 80386DX or better, 4Mb of ram or more

-reply by That GuyKeywords: smallest gui os

[iGuest 3]

Smallest OS w/GUISmallest Os With Gui

If you aren't worried about (very) limited functionality, try to extract the Win95 preinstallation environment.  I had it on a bootable floppy, with most of the files compressed on the floppy, then decompressed to a Ramdrive and run from there.  The GUI is basically called "X" by Microsoft, is strictly 16 bit, and you have to exit to DOS to run any DOS apps.  Will run 16-bit Windows apps OK.  I may take another run at it as a USB bootable OS...

-reply by VSinger

[iGuest 3]

GUI 2mb????Smallest Os With Gui

I too have been searching  for a super small  Gui of Linux.. Reason: I would like to Port it over to the Playstation one. And also run it on a pc with 64mb of ram and a 1gb hard drive... Any ideas??? if you find one email me... So far damnsmalllinux seems pretty nice! but I need it slimmed down further... Try for the http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ linux. Looks nice.

-reply by corey

[FruitRocks 0]

do you mean under 2 gigabytes? because that's not possible even if you were to find one, it wouldn't support any current program unless it is some new cloud-computing OS. For open-source, my favorite ones are: Fedora Ubuntu 9.10 (by FAR the best one)Damn Small Linux and yes, good old Windows 3.11 :(which is exactly 5.47 megabytes according to MSDN Dev Page by the way, somebody enlighten me on what 16-bit is...

[iGuest 3]

yeah, I have a netbook, and want some to boot b4 the actual OS in a few seconds, just to browse the web, and with flash to use youtube. Can anyone make any suggestions?

-question by jmans25

[ahmed_mmahmoud 0]

it's a kind of crazy (execuse me) to use such an OSyou will get nothing from such 2 MB OS except copy delete files and write *.txt files onlyso why you didn't use some programs like NC (it can works with mouse and menus)note that you have to run mouse.com file as a driver

[Zagubadu? 0]

Why would you ever need an OS that small? Anyways I do not think its possible not with that size requirement. I think the smallest I've heard of is like sixty megabytes or something around that. I think its Linux based. If you some how manage to find an OS thats two mb it'll probably run like DOS or something like that.

[iGuest 3]

Small Operating System for an Old Machine with 4MB RAMSmallest Os With Gui

One problem that no-one seems to be addressing is that of RAM & disc capacity.

I have a Sanyo MBC-19NC9 [CPU: Intel 486SXLP/25MHz/4MB RAM; 81.91MB hard drive; ?bit; 640x480 panel; chips 457VGA BI/OS, no OS installed], & would like to use it for experimentation/development. I'm thinking in terms of super-light.

While there are several minute OSs out there: MenuetOS/Kolibri, Visopsys, Dexos, even a 1.44MB bootable version of Plan9 from Bell Laboratories (these are the ones I've tried) most of them require 32MB of RAM to run. As a result, I just get a 'loop-out' when I try to run such an OS.

Are there any OSs out there that need no more than 4MB RAM to operate?-reply by VX37.285Gamma

[iGuest 3]

First of all, I landed at this site just out of curiosity and then I was blown away by your replies. The first time I got to know about menuetos, I was blown away. Well, that was a few years back. For those of you who have not seen what menuetos looks like and have been yapping about the zillion variations of Linux, take a look at it. First of all, it is free and you don't even need another PC to install it. It has got it's own emulator and if that does not convince you, then you could try it on something like Oracle VirtualBox of the good old Bochs.And for those people who are remotely inclined towards programming, do take a look at its source code. I know it is in assembly, and most of the programmers are assembly-phobic, but....what the hell??!!!

[iGuest 3]

Small Operating System for an Old Machine with 4MB RAMSmallest Os With Gui<p>One problem that no-one seems to be addressing is that of RAM & disc capacity.</p><p>I have a Sanyo MBC-19NC9 [CPU: Intel 486SXLP/25MHz/<strong>4MB RAM</strong>; <strong>81.91MB hard drive</strong>; ?bit; 640x480 panel; chips 457VGA BI/OS, <strong>no OS installed</strong>], & would like to use it for experimentation/development. I'm thinking in terms of super-light. </p><p>While there are several minute OSs out there: MenuetOS/Kolibri, Visopsys, Dexos, even a 1.44MB bootable version of Plan9 from Bell Laboratories (these are the ones I've tried) most of them require 32MB of RAM to run. As a result, I just get a 'loop-out' when I try to run such an OS.</p><p>Are there any OSs out there that need no more than 4MB RAM to operate?-reply by VX37.285Gamma</p>

 

Look up OS-9. They had a version for the Motorola 68B09E based CoCo3 from Tandy that had a windowing environment called Multi-vue. It was disk based and ran off floppies, but could run off an HD as well. It operated in 128k but 512k was of course better. I think it was eventually ported to the x86 family, and a web browser has been added. (as well as support for USB, CD, DVD, flash drives, etc.) I'm not so sure about flash in a web browser though. There are some OS-9 websites, and a news group or two. What you want to do IS possible, I just haven't done it or have the links handy. Good luck.

[iGuest 3]

Look up OS-9. They had a version for the Motorola 68B09E based CoCo3 from Tandy that had a windowing environment called Multi-vue. It was disk based and ran off floppies, but could run off an HD as well. It operated in 128k but 512k was of course better. I think it was eventually ported to the x86 family, and a web browser has been added. (as well as support for USB, CD, DVD, flash drives, etc.) I'm not so sure about flash in a web browser though. There are some OS-9 websites, and a news group or two. What you want to do IS possible, I just haven't done it or have the links handy. Good luck.

Cheers Sam!

I just checked this post out by chance.
From what I can gather, OS-9 is only compatible with Mac hardware, though it may be worth a try.

I'm also going to give muLinux a try, as it is claimed to run in 4MB. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/
There's also BasicLinux, which requires DOS for installation, but is claimed to run in 3MB. http://mujweb.cz/basiclinux/
Both have loads of features, & seem to be able to do just about everything.

Just in case anyone else is in a similar frame of mind, & also prefers Linux, the floppy discs will need to be reformatted to 1722KB:

Thus (in terminal, without quotes): 'sudo fdformat /dev/fd0u1722' or 'sudo fdformat /dev/fd0H1722

To write the img's to disc: 'sudo dd if='path_to_filename'.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=1722k

Failing this, I could always install FORTH!

[inea 0]

There are lots of open source OSes with GUIs,Some GUIs are programmed directly into the kernel and are less than 1mb in total, I recommend you try Aros which is less than 15mb of size and features a very nice graphical userinterface, http://aros.sourceforge.net/pictures/screenshots/ .

What is Aros exactly?
Why do you need such a small operating program? What are the specifications of the computer? Why doesn't the program you mention work? What is wrong with it? For what purposes are you going to use the computer? There are some small versions of Linux. Does any of those version help you? Here is a link to a site with a lot of version of Linux to download.

Linux distributions

[DrakeSnow 0]

I've tried using Dex4u OS, which fits on a floppy too, booting in via Unetbootin, from Win Vista, but somehow it didn't quite boot up correctly (ketp getting "Kernel Panic" notices which I thought were limited to Linux and BSD).I figure there has to be tons of this Under 2 Megs OS out there. Like the old athletic shoe maker ad says, "Impossible is nothing". Why is everyone saying it can't be done? I sure hope someone proves us all wrong!Even more interesting, I know several companies (which I have read about and not all of them are defense contractors) which are trying to make quantum netbooks with non-nuclear CPU's that run small OS's, have 1 to 1.5 terabytes of hard drive via advanced SSD, and are much more awesome goodness with their computers. Oh, and they're thinking of releasing them in 15 years. By the way, the companies were in an article I read back in 1999, which means we can have these totally sweet PC's in 2014 or 2015 CE. I'd really want one!But like I said, a small OS is just another possibility in a capitalist world. And since this world pretty much is, competition and the need to present a product to a small niche of the consumer base that wants said product, will eventually give us an OS that is under 2 Megs and has a killer awesome GUI.How about it? Dare to imagine?Blessed be.

[Quatrux 4]

What is Aros exactly?Why do you need such a small operating program? What are the specifications of the computer? Why doesn't the program you mention work? What is wrong with it? For what purposes are you going to use the computer? There are some small versions of Linux. Does any of those version help you? Here is a link to a site with a lot of version of Linux to download.

Linux distributions

AROS is an operating system for x86 processors based on the original Amiga OS, I've tried it a lot of times, you can try it out with VirtualBox as it's possible, just you need the required image of AROS, it's available for free. But the operating system it self is based on Amiga and I think for using it, you would need to be a guy like me who used Amiga OS 3.9 and even Amiga OS 2.1 a lot of years ago before Linux got so popular. Amiga OS weren't a computer which used x86 architecture and AROS for a lot of years now is porting it to x86 architecture.. For FREE, but I doubt it will ever be competitive to Windows or Linux these days.

Amiga OS with GUI and a lot of programs could be installed and loaded from 1-2 floppy disks back in those days, or at least use 30-60 MB with all the possible Workbench stuff without any additional games and programs.