The JNode team is proud to announce the release of the version 0.2 of JNode. JNode.org is an open source java OS written fully in java (with a very small assembler nano-kernel).
This is a major release that features the first possibility of running real world java programs on JNode.
We are glad to see the goals set by our 0.2 draft has been reached and are now looking forward
to new goals as layed out in our 0.3 draft.
Included as new in this release is:
Support for most of the 5.0 language features, except Annotation
Many GNU ClassPath patches
Many JNode patches
Improved shell command interaction, like piping
Automatic mounting of the jifs (information) file system
Added kill shell command and kill of job/command when pressing ctrl+c running in shell
More information can be found at http://www.jnode.org
I hope jnode really takes off.
Looks interesting. A link to a website would sure be nice.
http://jnode.sourceforge.net/portal/
What a terrific project, I wish them great success.
I don’t know how are the hardware requirement when the OS matured enough. Even at infant stage it require 256MB of RAM and while the recommended are 1GHz speed and 512MB of RAM. Does Java really bloated and causing such requirement for the OS?
emey your trolling.
The last version of RHEL I installed required a minimum of 256Mbs as well. See http://www.redhat.com/software/rhel/configuration/ and http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=…
Multiple people told me to have at least 512Mbs and I wouldn’t dream of running it on anything slower than 1.6 Ghz.
Java needs memory, big deal – its cheap. Now stop trolling.
The difference is that Red Hat is a full blown OS with many services and features implemented.
Jnode is an infant OS with very few things working and unusable.
How the hell is that a troll?
The comments are very interesting, in fact causing me more intrest in this AND a visit to their web site.
Why don’t you stop policing what you don;t know
It looks like version .3 is supposed to reduce memory usage and add a GUI. We’ll see how successful they are. Of course, they admit it isn’t going to win any races. The point is to make a useable OS with java, not to create the fastest OS.
Anyway, this is one of the more interesting posts I’ve read on OSAlert. Whether you like java or not, this project is interesting.
The memory requirements are currently so high, because the VM inside JNode is not very mature yet. The real memory still in use after boot after a garbage collection cycle is about 57Mb. Still way too much, but we’re working on that.
Ewout
I’m glad to see this project progressing. I can see this as being a really great thing. Although, I’m not yet sure in what way it will be great…
Congrates to everyone who is working on JNode!
I’m sorry to see such a bad start of the conversation of this topic. Ok, rant done.
And your comparing a linux distribution to a premature hobby os is obviously not trolling of course.
Anyways, It’s a nice proof of concept thing, shows how much an interpreted language can do, but that’s about it.
I wonder if they are capable of swapping memory yet? Couldn’t see anything about it on the page. If no, it’s not that strange that it requires some memory.
Personally I don’t think it’s such a big matter if it requires 256MB to start, the interresting question is how much a new process takes. An elaboration on this; some months ago someone posted a link to Apple’s Java features where they explained that their Java processes shared the libs (like .so libs in C).
Anyway, it’s a cool project! Good luck with it!
wonder what version of jvm are they using, is it officially from sun? java 5 supports the shared lib feature to reduce memory consumption when two or more java apps are open
AFIK, JNode does not use Sun Java.. They should use it, IMHO.
Umm, your missing the point here. The Sun java VM a “Virtual Machine” that runs in a host OS. It’s not an OS. JNode is an OS. An OS who’s main language is Java (well, the bytecode). So, there is no need for a VM. The JNode OS natively runs Java Bytecode.
Perhaps there will be a VM for Perl or Python, but the OS is natively java.
They can’t use the sun jvm, it doesn’t support their os
I believe they use their own “jvm” + gnu classpath. Although, the previous comment is correct it isn’t the same as a regular jvm. Basically you take a jvm an throw out all the OS abstraction stuff… Read the website for more (accurate) info.
They were evaluating the possibility of switching to JikesRVM for their VM implementation, though I don't know if they decided it to be worth the change or not. In any case, theirs is a good effort. Implementing isolates will help to define better the fact that this is not a VM sharing effort, but an operating system on its own running multiple java programs.
Doing dirty OS things in Java? Don’t think it was suposed to do so =) Pointers anyone? Hm, I wonder on how many Assembler (and maybe C) they rely. Anyway, another interesting OS project.