alt Hacker NewsI worked at Digital Research from 1984 to 1990. CP/M-68K was the first operating system I used there, but only for a brief period. It's unfortunate that the source for FlexOS is not available; it would be a better choice for a hobby project like this. It was a protected mode OS for the 286 that had a real-time kernel, TCP/IP stack, DOS compatibility box, and more. It was a clean break from CP/M. IBM used it in their point-of-sale terminals for quite a few years, and I worked on porting it to 32-bit architectures like the NEC V60. It died after Novell bought DRI, aside from its use inside IBM.
Replies
Looking back on the project, what do you think could be some interesting things one can learn from it?
> It's unfortunate that the source for FlexOS is not available
So very true. 100x this.
The documentation for FlexOS 1.2/1.3 is available on Bitsavers. So someone could re-implement it.
The build kit for CDOS-68k 1.2 (aka FlexOS 68k) is available ob Gaby's site.
I worked for an OEM in the 90s, and we used FlexOS 286 (and 386) ver 2.2/2.3 on some custom systems, including an ePOS system.