Re: [jos-general] new to jos

[Gilbert C. H. II <gc...@mi...>]

At 12:01 PM 8/25/01 -0700, Iain Shigeoka <iai...@ya...> wrote:
>BTW, the latest developer preview 
>of the next generation JVM on Mac OS X (1.3.1 compatible) includes 
>hardware implementations of AWT/Swing that is just incredible...

Mac OS X is a Java-friendly operating system. It might be more friendly
than Linux or Microsoft Windows. It helps people move from a classic
operating system to a Java-based operating system.

OS/400 is a Java-friendly operating system. It compiles (yes, compiles)
Java class files into machine code. It always runs the machine code
version. Compiling is not an explicit step. The OS compiles class files
automatically, seemlessly. As for speed, few operating systems come close
to its performance. In addition, OS/400 has only the RAWT-server
implementation of the AWT; as you may know, an AS/400 has no bit-mapped
console.

Who is going to study these Java-friendly operating systems to discover
their strengths and weaknesses? Who is going to converge the operating
system utilities, so that we can literally use the same Java code on every
operating system? Who is going to provide hints and clues as to the
optimization of a Java-friendly operating system to eliminate the
components which are made obsolete by their Java counterparts?

Know your competition. If you want to build an operating system that is
better than other operating systems, you must know your competition. You
must know what works on other operating systems and what doesn't.

Personally, I have had great success by supplementing crude operating
systems, such as Linux, Microsoft Windows and OS/400, with
platform-independent Java operating system utilities. These applications do
not ignore the machine code components, but make them more accessible. They
take advantage of everything.

Think about how many different ways there are to "Add an account" or "Add a
user" on these operating systems. A Java-based operating system utility
should be able to "Add an account/user" on any operating system--including
ultimate JOS. Rules have changed dramatically since the wide acceptance of
Java technologies. An operating system kernel has become more of a
commodity. If your Java application runs on all kernels, why should you
care which one your customer prefers?