I've been looking around the internet to join some type of operating system project so I could learn a little bit about OS programming, but there don't seem to be that many that would suit me well. Most of them are already close to being completed, or at least to far along.for someone of my experiance to jump in. The rest seem to be more aimed at creating yet another linux distribution. Since I don't want to start a venture like this on my own, I began thinking of were to find people to work with. My first idea was to just start up a project on source forge and throw in before the mercy of the opensource community at large. That idea wasn't to applealing to me, so as I wast scrolling through my favorites an noticted this site, and I figured others teens are as good as any people to work with. This OS won't have to be confined to development by teens, but it would be great if the project was more or less ran by teens. Also the name wouldn't neccesarily be TeenOS, that just looked like a good message header. I don't want to just improve a kernel or build the rest of an OS on top of and existing kernel. I don't really just want to make a kernel to bundle with the GNU programs, but I want to make the kernel and the whole operating system from scratch. Ideally I would rather have a OS that was more of a windows clone that a Unix clone like Linux or BSD, although compatibility with both and MacOS would be very important. If anyone is interested in working on such a project, please e-mail me at brandon6684@hotmail.com

I think it is good to try to learn this way, but things like "compatibility with Windows and MacOS" would be very bad ideas to worry about. You should focus most on the learning aspects instead of actually hoping to create the best OS out there. We've seen projects like Freedows be run mostly by teens, have literally thousands of people listed as involved, and go completely kerplunk.

I don't want all these advanced features in the begining, I know i need to take it one step at a time. To start out with it doesn't have to be compatible with any thing. It would probally be best to implement development in phases. To start out with in the first phase, there would just need to be a simple kernel, along with some drivers an neat little utilities. Then phase two would probally be to get the OS to a state where it's semi useful, and begin implementing windows or at least DOS compatibility(it could be Mac or Unix here, but it's meant to be Win compatible first). Next Phase three would be to get it the state of a full operating system with a GUI and everything, and implement other OS compatibility. Finally phase four would be to clean it up, and do some things like install programs so it can be used by end users. Just incase your intested, it would likely be made under the GPL. I'll do waht I can to guide it sensibly so it doesn't get rushed. My main concern at the moment isn't to compete with other OSes, but to learn how to make one first, and then mold it into a viable alternative to Windows, Linux, and everybody else. Actually the intial one could be one that's completly unique and share no compatibility with others, adn the make an entirelly new one afterwards, but I think my four phase plan would be more efficent, since at phase two it would sort of be a waste notto implement compatibility with some other OS, and then finish it like that. In todays environment it's hard to start a new OS thats not compatible with others. As far as team members go, I would rather kepp that actual team that guides development rather small, although it would be open source and help from any one would be welcome.

well, even for an experienced os development team, this would take a lot of time, and for a few inexperienced teenagers, what you are suggesting is a 4 or 5 year job. i would suggest you investigate os development on your own for a while, try to write some simple things: mbr, bootloaders, maybe even consider attempting to write some sort of task sharing software. once you understand the complexity of what you want to accomplish, perhaps you'll have a better idea of how to go about it.

Yes, I would say that even planning to come up with a viable alternative to the usual OS's in the future would be detrimental.

Try my website, I wrote my own OS, and dedicated a site to constructing one

http;//www.gaztek.org

(or if that doesnt work http://gaztek.sourceforge.net/)

Thanks
Gaz