This repo contains a prototype of the bottom half of IdealOS, a theoretical desktop operating system that builds on the lessons of the past and tries to implement a full system in 1% of the code. This repo contains the graphics and input layers up through debugging tools and some simple proof of concept apps. Currently it runs on Mac, but should work on anything supported by SDL2 that can run NodeJS and the Rust compiler. Right now it runs in a window on top of your existing OS.

The purpose of this prototype is to experiment with desktop OS ideas. How can we provide functionality modern people expect with 1% of the code and at many times the speed (or on meager hardware like a Raspberry PI).

Achitecture

The OS is built around message passing. The core server stores a tiny bit of state and routes JSON messages around with websockets. Apps are little headless processes that connect to the server on launch and perform all interaction with messages: (drawing, input, storage). The display server is the only component that talks to the actual hardware. It draws to the screen and handles mouse and keyboard input.

The APIs are designed to support multiple implementations. Currently the core server and apps are written in Javascript, while the display server is written in Rust. There is also a separate display implementation in browser Javascript as part of the debugger.

The actual schema for supported messages is in a separate repo, along with generated Javascript and Rust bindings to those messages.

Steps to Run

Preparation

• you should already have NodeJS installed
  • if on Raspberry Pi 3/4/400 do:

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt full-upgrade -y
 curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_16.x | sudo -E bash -
 sudo apt update
 sudo apt install -y nodejs
 sudo apt-get install gcc g++ make
 

• You should already have git installed. on Pi do:

sudo apt-get install git

Core OS

• clone this repo (idealos_bottom)
• install deps with cd idealos_bottom; npm install;
• run the main server and default apps with npm run start-server

Sidecar

For the Sidecar renderer that uses your webbrowser do in another terminal window do:

• clone the testing display server repo
• install deps with npm install
• run the display server with npm start
• it will compile then open your browser with a page. press the 'connect' button to connect to the server.

Native (no X windows) renderer

• install rustup
  • on a recent Rpi you can do: curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh and accept the defaults. You might need to log out and back into the shell to get cargo in your path.
• clone the rust display server repo
• build it with cd idealos_rust_client; cargo run;
• If it fails with an openssl error, install libssl-dev first (I had to do this on Raspberry Pi) sudo apt-get install libssl-dev then run cargo run again.
• You might also need to install SDL. sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev then run cargo run again.
• now run the client gui with cargo run ws://localhost:8081