This was done back in 2014 (with different images), and was a super success.. making it easy for people to try software they wouldn't normally have...

Check out the one from 2014: http://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2014/

I wonder if they'll feature TempleOS at one point...

It would be appropriate, especially considering its biblical references :}

[1] http://www.templeos.org/

For the uninitiated, TempleOS (formerly LoseTheOS) is the work of programmer Terry S Davis, who went schizophrenic. He hangs out on HN, mostly blabbing nonsense, racial slurs, or conspiracy theories, but the rare times he's lucid can be very interesting. More info about him:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gods-lonely-programmer

He was shadowbanned, though, because it just wasn't worth putting up with the shit. See this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7818823

He also does some fascinating videos and sometimes interesting live streams, sometimes multiple times a day, on his YouTube channel...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdX4uJUwSFwiY3XBvu-F_-Q

Terry Davis' crazy is actually pretty easy to understand. He believes that God exists. However, the word of god is a random sentence generator he created (though he would say god willed him to do it). This means he is following the will of an RNG. If he's not trolling (look how long Andy Kauffman would hold a gag), I don't find his zealotry for his version of God much different than other religious zealotry. At least, his schitzophrenia is functional, and it's very interesting to watch software development dictated by an RNG.

There seems to be a correllation between the DSM-IV classification of Aspergers and a predilection to views outside social norms.

if you can get past the blatant and often blinding racism he'd spew on HN, Davis actually had some really interesting insights in his posts. Shame they were all greyed-out.

I looked at the RNG in TempleOS out of curiosity. I assumed he was mixing in some noise sources that could be explained as some kind of universal communication subchannel from god. Here's the relevant code (in HolyC of course):

  I32 RandI32()
  {//Random I32. Xor with TimsStamp.
    sys_rnd_seed.i32[0]=(1664525*sys_rnd_seed.i32[0]+1013904223)^GetTSC>>4;
    return sys_rnd_seed.i32[0];
  }

There are very similar RNG functions for signed and unsigned versions of 16, 32 and 64 bit ints. The GetTSC function just calls RDTSC, combines the two 32-bit halves in EAX and EDX and returns the recombined 64-bit TSC.

So the last returned value is used as part of the seed for the next one. The initial seed is set in kend.cpp:

  sys_rnd_seed  =93186752^GetTSC;

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed that god would be quite so deterministic.

Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/221/

God does not throw dice. Apparently, he does use a linear congruential RNG.

Hoping for something interesting that isn't x86ish :)

We're hoping, too -- there's some more ground to cover, let's see how it turns out. :-)

Heya!

Thomas Huth, and myself are organizing the 2016 edition. We still have a couple of slots left, so don't hesitate to contact[1] if you have a cool disk image (or two) to contribute!

Edit: Check out the original announcement[2] by Thomas about disk image requirements.

[1] http://www.qemu-advent-calendar.org/2016/#contact

[2] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2016-09/msg039...

squeak/pharo

Corman Lisp/Clozure CL/SBCL Common Lisp Interface Manager https://github.com/robert-strandh/McCLIM

meta emu: b-em/atomulator/elkulator/rpcemuspoon/ep128/amstrad cpc/fuse/stella/atari800/hatari/vice/uae/apple II/kegs/basilisk/sheepshaver/vmac/psx/pcsx/mess/EACA Video Genie etc. A lot has compatible FLOSS ROMs included.

sky is the limit: Stellarium

Thank you for compiling this set of OS images. Being always on the lookout for obscure and non-mainstream OS I was pleased to find a few more and possibly even more in the days to come.

It was always fun to see MnuetOS run a very usable GUI with comprehensive programs all from a single floppy drive back in the days.

For me the above routine has now been replicated by booting macOS, starting VirtualBox Ubuntu VM and installing QEMU inside the VM just to see it boot MenuetOS even faster than bare metal boot ever did.

I'm curious - what would a minimal Linux(?) system consist of that starts qemu at the first opportunity?

Perhaps qemu could even replace init?

Have a look at Qubes OS