osFree project

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osFree is a (Free Open Source software) operating system development project, aiming to replace eventually all OS/2 subsystems with Open source analogues. It aims for OS/2 Warp 4 (Merlin) as a base compatibility system, which does not mean that we will not support features of newer (OS/2 Warp Server for e-business and eComStation) OS/2 versions. This includes rewriting not only user-level code but the OS/2 kernel too.

We're collecting existing code for OS/2 subsystems for years. Also we are developing our own bootloader named FreeLdr and OS/2 personality for L4 microkernel, i.e. a number of servers, implementing the Control Program (OS/2 kernel) Interface functionality in userspace. See osFree design and development concept for more details. Visit the Chat Channel on the EFNET

Several projects with similar goals exist (or existed). Here is the brief comparison of goals and tasks of different projects.

Our project is reusing the code of many opensource projects.

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• RSS feeds repaired, the fight with spambots seems to reach the end by Valery V.Sedletski (2014/06/27 03:29)

  After server crash at the end of 2012, the site is being repaired from Feb.-Mar. 2013 until now. Now the wiki is being filled with info (some of which is restored from web.archive.org), and parts of Forum too. So, welcome to our new site!
• A presentation of osFree on CC'2011 by Valery V.Sedletski (2011/10/27 09:58)

  August 28, osFree team member Vadim Priluzkiy (aka Oxyd) has demonstrated osFree OS/2 personality working together with l4linux over L4 microkernel. The presentation was carried out during the Chaos Constructions'2011 yearly Computer Art Festival. (http://party11.cc.org.ru), the presentation video is here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yxE6Jy3SQ04
• Recent activity by Valery V.Sedletski (2010/01/31 05:51)

  We have linked our channels #osfree @ eCSNet and #osfree @ EFNet. All messages in one channel are translated to another channel. Also we reviewing our release and development position to be more effective. As always we are welcom new developers in many areas (DOS/WIN16 and OS/2 subsystems)
• Forums by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/09/05 14:17)

  Registration in forums at osfree.org site is enbled recently. Please report forum bugs and render problems to us in "osfree.org site" forum.
• 0.0.4 release by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/09/03 07:06)

  We released this preview to show actual possibility of LX executables (native OS/2 executable file format) to be run on top of L4. Output from LX executable is "I am really small!" phrase. Other things is debug output. Our executable uses msg.dll which uses doscalls.dll. So, linking also works. Also we present here osFree loader which allow to load as Multiboot compatible kernels as native OS/2 kernel. Loader is moduler and easy to extend. Next release will provide some interactive like directory browsing and files execution. See roadmap at www.osfree.org for more info.
• New logo and site fixes by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/07/02 15:14)

  We replaced our old logo by new modern one. Thanks to Alexander Kramer for this work. Also we fixed small annoying bugs in our CMS. Thanks to Kim Haverblad for the help.
• Better news service at #osFree by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/06/17 14:58)

  Starting from now irc://irc.efnet.net#osfree channel supports rss news translation to channel. You will see any changes of project immediatly. Thanks to Yoda for bot extending.
• EFNet bots changed by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/04/25 04:57)

  EFNet bots osfreebot and osfree is dead. We are glad to present new bot: osFree2. Thanks to Yoda for bot hosting.
• FreePM project now part of osFree project by Valery V.Sedletski (2009/04/08 15:32)

  FreePM project now part of osFree project. All source base now in osFree SVN and some goals slightly changed (like SOM interfaces instead of C++ interfaces and binary level compatibility instead of source level compatibility). Most of services disabled and now osFree project services musy be used. Thanks to Evgen Kotsuba for the help.

• More news

We're now at the alpha stage, which means that the current version is not feature-complete nor stable and not recommended for everyday usage. The 0.0.x release series will still stay in alpha stage, and 0.9 release series will be marked as beta, meaning a system which is suitable for every day use.

The next release will be 0.0.5, with an earliest projected release date being December, 2009. See our osFree roadmap for details.