Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a new type of computer

Re:Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a... by fl0wenol on Monday February 08, 2021 @02:24PM (#26068914)

This is basically how the Palm Pilot worked. The RAM in the system was a developer-invisible cache that sat on top of a record-oriented access layer on top of the nonvolatile flash and system ROM.

I'm simplifying slightly but it's the same idea. It worked okay but had its quirks.

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Re:Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a... by lproven on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @10:29AM (#26078570)

[Author of the piece here]

Yes, indeed - I specifically discussed that in the talk.

The Palm platform sold over 50 million units, with no filesystem at all. This shows the tech is valid for end-user devices, IMHO.

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Re:Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a... by andrewshadura on Monday February 08, 2021 @04:35PM (#26070493)

In fact, Palm Pilot didn't have proper non-volatile memory, instead, it had static RAM, which would preserve data for some time even if you swapped the batteries.

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Re:Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a... by mongol on Monday February 08, 2021 @02:31PM (#26068992)

Did not also Newton have something of that kind?

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Re:Starting Over: A FOSS proposal for a new type of OS for a... by protomyth on Monday February 08, 2021 @07:15PM (#26072198)

The Newton did have a storage called Soups. It was extremely fun to program and I miss it dearly.

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