about KolibriOS

Kolibri or KolibriOS is a small open source x86 operating system written completely in assembly. It was forked off from MenuetOS in 2004 and has run under independent development since.

In a review piece on alternative operating systems (2009), Tech Radar called it "tremendously impressive" noting its performance and streamlined code-base.

Features

• Pre-emptive multitasking, streams, parallel execution of system calls
• Boots in few seconds from various devices; NTFS and Ext2/3 also supported. Can be started from Coreboot and Windows(Windows will shut down)
• Graphical user interface based on and optimized for VESA
• Development kit: code editor with a macro-assembler (FASM) integrated
• Most distributions will fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy image

System requirements

• i586 compatible CPU required
• 8 MB of RAM
• VESA-compatible videocard
• 1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive, hard disk, USB Flash or CD-drive
• Keyboard and mouse (COM, PS/2 or USB)

Supported hardware

• Hard disks and some USB-sticks. Supported file systems are FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 (long names support), NTFS (partially, read only), ext2/ext3/ext4 (partially, read only),XFS (partially, read only) and CDFS
• AC'97 audio codec support for Intel, nForce, nForce2, nForce3, nForce4, SIS7012, FM801, VT8233, VT8233C, VT8235, VT8237, VT8237R, VT8237R Plus and EMU10K1Xchipsets
• HD Audio codec support for certain motherboards
• AMD, ATI and Intel video chipsets

Development branches

• KolibriACPI: extended ACPI support
• KolibriNET: extended network support
• Kolibri-A: embeddable version fiercely optimized for AMD Fusion platforms