From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 10 10:50:48 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A07EB90E for ; Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:50:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (agora.rdrop.com [IPv6:2607:f678:1010::34]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7B0B68FC17 for ; Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:50:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (66@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.7) with ESMTP id qBAAolZD034906 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Mon, 10 Dec 2012 02:50:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.14.2/Submit) with UUCP id qBAAol85034905; Mon, 10 Dec 2012 02:50:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: by pluto.rain.com (4.1/SMI-4.1-pluto-M2060407) id AA17688; Mon, 10 Dec 12 02:48:59 PST Date: Mon, 10 Dec 12 02:48:59 PST From: perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison) Message-Id: <11212101048.AA17688@pluto.rain.com> To: aryeh.friedman@gmail.com Subject: Re: using FreeBSD to create a completely new OS Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, zbeeble@gmail.com X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:50:48 -0000 > ... a special arrangement that allows me to skip > the course work part of grad school ... [shudder] I hope that "special arrangement" includes passing the final exams, or otherwise demonstrating that you already know the content, of at least the minimum course work that would ordinarily be required :) > [I have not formally started yet] So you don't yet have a formally-assigned advisor :( I hope you at least have had some substantial (although necessarily informal) discussions with the department head, and/or the professor whom you anticipate will be your advisor, before doing a lot of work that might turn out not to be useful in your pursuit. > I do not plan to do the whole OS just the stuff up to mid-level I/O > (for FreeBSD this is also known as user land I/O) While the userland is by far the _largest_ part, the low-level kernel is likely to be the _trickiest_ part to get right ;) Another OS for your research list: Mach (which had been around for a while before being adopted as the basis of Darwin, the MacOS X kernel). Darwin is highly modular; depending on what you're doing, you may be able to write less code from scratch by reusing or adapting some parts of it.