Delightful World of Operating Systems

 Operating Systems are a crucial aspect of the computing universe. I have worked on various of them since my early computer days and they still excite me every time there is something new. I will like to share my experiences and insights on these and talk about the various systems out there. The first OS I ever used was Windows 95 in my school and that is where I got my knack for computers.

Since then, I have worked on various OS's, messed with them and their code, tried to hack things with them and I am even trying to build one of my own. I worked on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, and now 10, various Linux distributions like Arch, Debian, all flavours of Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, Elementary OS, Black Arch, Gentoo, Open Suse, BSD, the list goes on... and now my daily driver is Mac OS Mojave on a Macbook. My first computer had Windows Vista Basic. I used to play NFS Most Wanted and GTA Vice City on it.

I am also always hyped up about various mobile OS' like Symbian, Android, now gone Windows Phone, older Palm OS, Ubuntu Phone, Meego, Tizen, Firefox OS, Blackberry OS, iOS etc. Though I never had the chance to always get my hands on devices with these, I always read about them to stay updated. I got my hands on my first Symbian 40 Nokia many years ago. No wonder I tried to flash it using Phoenix and nearly bricked it. I once bricked an Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone but after I had successfully flashed it with a ROM. But then the ROM was unstable and I played too much with configurations and phone got bricked so. My experiments with the OS went so far that I had to make new OS installations on my computers monthly or even weekly because I always broke the desktop manager, boot manager, drivers, or the dependencies, or registries in case of Windows but that is how I learned and my fascination grew.

And now in college, I had Operating Systems as a subject and I learned all about the internals and working of these systems and I really liked learning it. I appreciate the way in which various engineers and professionals work on these systems to make them better by the day since the beginning. I like to play around with UI too much and all these design languages across various platforms have got me hanging in there. There is so much you can do with them. You can play best games out there on them with Windows (and some on Linux with Steam), develop all types of software, design all designs, create music, videos, design things on CAD with the right software. And this really took some hard work by those people making it, gonna give them that. Of course, there have been so many failures but one must appreciate the effort and creativity that went in those like Firefox OS, Ubuntu Phone etc.

And then AI came to OS, first Siri, then Google Assistant and after that Cortana, really making these great experiences. And also there were some setbacks like lags in Vista (but I liked Aero on it) and that Windows 10 works slowly on my old computer (but it works like charm on my new ones). Things that I never liked were adware and viruses on Windows and broken packages on Linux. Apart from that, this has been a very great experience for me.

I liked Unity desktop on Ubuntu too much and wish they had continued their work with Windows Phone, Ubuntu Phone or Firefox OS to see what becomes of them. Anyways, we still have MATE desktop, Budgie, XFCE, Gnome 3.0, KDE on Linux and Fluent Design and Metro themes on Windows. KDE was so cool back in the day with all those animations and customizability. I had no words to describe Android Honeycomb when it debuted on Motorola tablets. Mojave by Apple also looks pretty nice. But looks aren't all that matter, it is what is under the hood. Mac OS has always been solid on stability and now that I use it daily, I can see it. And Linux has always been so fast and lightweight with so many functionalities, it blows your mind. I wish they will make Windows as fast and responsive too.

The few technologies that I think really were game changers were cloud services like iCloud/OneDrive/Google Drive and online SaaS like Adobe CC and Google Docs. Chrome OS did a really elegant job by taking it all online. The feature I like most about Chromebooks is that you can lose an old one, then buy a new one and continue working on it just like the last day. Convergence promised by Ubuntu Phone might have been a real game changer. OS's have really taught me a lot: Online repositories, Shells, OS processes, Memory, Processor, GPU management, Networking, it just taught me too much. Also now they have Neural Engines (NPU) and security chips like T2 and Titan introduced, the horizons just widened. I also play with Kali and Black Arch a lot. I learned about Metasploit, John the Ripper, Sniffing etc. and so much more. There is too much to learn in the hacking arena and I am still learning a lot of it.

And now that I am making an OS of my own, let me tell you about it. I named it Black OS. I am planning to make it AI based i.e. lots of functionality will depend on deep learning and such technologies. I was thinking of using the Linux kernel but I don't think it will be enough and I may have to write one on my own. The basic idea is to integrate the AI functionalities and techniques into the OS, a convergence of sorts. It will serve many purposes. I intend it to be geared towards scientific/mathematics/engineering research needs where AI can be practically helpful. I am researching and learning a lot for this to become reality. Alright then, now I must get back to work. Talk to me if you have something to tell or share. :)