Free operating systems software for linux

DEX Extensible Operating System is an operating system specifically designed for educational and research use. DEX Extensible Operating System allows for the dynamic reconfiguration and customization of various system services using concepts found in extensible operating systems.
It aims to create an operating system design thats easy to understand while having features that are common in todays modern operating systems. Unlike other small operating systems, it is powerful enough to support simple applications that require multithreading and file management.
Its architectural design, with the help of Aspect-Oriented programming, enables easy modification and extensibility. It was developed in C and runs on PCs with 80386 processors or higher.
Enhancements:
- This version is released with a floppy image and the kernel source code.
- The release contains peformance enhancements, source code clean-ups, and a makefile for use with GNU make.

tk_docapp project is a small GUI for mounting devices and ACPI energy monitoring under NetBSD.

User of other *nix operating systems can only use the mount option.

Inferno is a compact operating system designed for building distributed and networked systems on a wide variety of devices and platforms.
Inferno was originally developed at Bell Labs (the research division of Lucent Technologies).
Inferno Operating System is a well-designed, economical operating system particularly suitable for use in networked devices such as advanced telephones, hand-held devices, TV set-top boxes, and many other embedded applications.
Inferno can run in native mode on an embedded system or in emulation mode under many different operating systems. Inferno has many features in common with Plan 9.
Cross-Platform Portability
Inferno can run as a user application on top of an existing operating system or as a stand alone operating system. Most of the popular operating systems and processor architectures are supported:
Host Operating Systems:
- Windows NT/2000/XP
- Irix
- Linux
- MacOS X
- FreeBSD
- Solaris
- Plan 9
Supported Architectures:
- Intel x86 (386 & higher)
- Intel XScale
- IBM PowerPC
- ARM StrongARM (ARM & Thumb)
- Sun SPARC
Inferno also runs as a plug-in under Internet Explorer version 4 and higher. Each Inferno system presents an identical environment to the applications, irrespective of the underlying host OS or architecture, allowing the developer to work with a truly homogeneous environment across multiple different platforms.
Portable Applications
Inferno applications are written in Limbo, a modern, safe, modular, concurrent programming language with C-like syntax. It is more powerful than C but considerably easier to understand and debug than C++ or Java. Limbo code is compiled into architecture independent byte code which is then interpreted (or compiled on the fly) on the target processor. This means that any Inferno application will run identically on all Inferno platforms.
Transparent Resources
Inferno offers complete transparency of resources and data using a simple but powerful namespace system. By representing resources as files and having one standard communication protocol, resources such as data stores, services and external devices can easily be shared between Inferno systems. A resource interface may be imported to the local system and used by the applications without them knowing, or needing to know, whether it is local or remote.
Security
High level security is an important part of the Inferno system. By using one standard protocol for all network communication, security can be focused on one point and provided at a system level. Inferno offers full support for authenticated, encrypted connections using a certificate based user identification scheme and variety of algorithms including:
- IDEA, 56 bit DES, 40, 128 and 256 bit RC4 encryption algorithms
- MD4, MD5 and SHA secure hash algorithms
A Complete Solution
Inferno is not only an operating system, it is also a complete development environment, providing all the tools necessary for creating, testing and debugging the applications that run within it.
- Acme IDE: includes editor, shell, advanced pattern matching tools & more
- Fast Compiler: with full syntax and compile time type checking
- Graphical Debugger: with full stack trace for currently executing threads
- Powerful Shell: with sophisticated scripting capabilities
- UNIX like commands: including bind, grep, gzip, mount, ps, tar, yacc...
Enhancements:
- New licence terms (a `dual licence scheme allowing use as Free Software)
- Styx revision based on 9P2000, and consequent changes to Sys
- Authentication changes
- Improved colour graphics support, including compositing
- Scalable fonts using Freetype
- Revamped Tk implementation
- Window management moved out of Tk to a separate window manager in Limbo
- Limbo: exception handling and fixed-point
- Limbo: other possible changes
- Dis VM changes
- More commands and library modules
- Better network service configuration
- /net/dns served by host and native DNS resolver
- Hosted kernels configured from a parts list as for native kernels
- Signed modules
- Internet Explorer plug-in revised and in source form
- Expanded documentation

The Contiki Operating System is mostly known as an operating system for networked embedded systems. A few years ago, however, Contikis primary claim to fame was its Commodore 64 port.
With the help of JAC64, a Java-based C64 emulator developed by my colleague and fellow Contiki developer Joakim Eriksson, you can now experience the C64 port of Contiki 1.2-devel1 again, directly in your web browser!
Enhancements:
- Contiki now does dynamic run-time loading and linking of standard ELF files.
- Rime, a protocol stack designed for low-power radio communication, has been added.
- Cooja, a Java-based network simulator for Contiki is included.
- The build system has been reworked to allow for easy cross-compiling for many platforms.
- A new port for the Tmote Sky sensor board has been added.

Elisa is a project to create a media center solution for GNU/Linux and Unix operating systems. It runs on top of the GStreamer multimedia framework.

In addition to personal video recorder functionality (PVR) and Music Jukebox support, Elisa also interoperates with devices following the DLNA standard, like Intels ViiV systems.

Virt Install is a command line tool built on top of libvirt that facilitates installation of virtual machines. Virt Install project supports installation of fully-virtualized Xen guest machines for arbitrary operating systems and installation of Xen paravirtualized Fedora/RHEL operating systems.

The tool takes care of fetching the guest kernels, creating file based disk images, and booting the guest operating system installer media.

nVidia FreeBSD Display Driver is the OpenGL nVidia support for graphic cards on FreeBSD operating systems.
Enhancements:
Added support for new GPUs:
- GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a
- GeForce 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a
Fixed console restore problems in several different configurations:
- Quadro FX 4400 SLI
- VESA console
- Notebook LCD displays
- Improved interaction with ATi RS480/482 based mainboards.
- Improved support for House Sync with G-Sync II.
- Improved NVIDIA X driver interaction with ACPI daemon.