News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Linux from Scratch. Parent comment

Re:Linux from Scratch by convolvatron on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @10:20AM (#49712967)
in the bad olden times you definitely started to write your operating system for your new computer from the first instruction executed upwards. it wasn't at all common to have a comprehensive virtualization/simulation environment.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux from Scratch by HarlequinHair on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @10:46AM (#49713379)
I can't understand what is the point you are trying to make
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux from Scratch by convolvatron on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @11:07AM (#49713700)
until very recently you couldn't even do OS development without a boot loader, so asserting that that would be the last thing you would write is just nonsensical
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux from Scratch by HarlequinHair on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @11:45AM (#49714339)
Let me rephrase.

We already have a bootloader.

"Linux from scratch" involves Linux, not Libreboot, not Grub (just to mention instances of BIOS/UEFI and bootloader).

We already have means to test the new OS.

What I meant with my previous post is "newer" bootloader (which are actually pretty old, like grub), came after OSes passed a certain complexity.

Previously we technically had bootloaders, but they were interactive, mostly.

Am I misremembering?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Linux from Scratch by convolvatron on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @12:38PM (#49715114)
oh. I'm talking about authoring OS and boot loaders from an absolute blank slate. like starting from the world where you toggled them in from switches, and later by burning proms
[ Parent | on HN ]