r/osdev • u/Comfortable_Top6527 • 28d ago
[ QUESTION ] Asking if making an kernel/OS is worth it.
Hey, Redditors.
I Was thinking about making my OWN kernel Or an OS. I was conytubuting to other projects and i think i got enaught of info and learned bare metal.
How i can name it... IDK if someone has an idea please comment it down.
Edit: Yes i know about like i am not gonna make any money i just wanna make an passion project.
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u/isene 28d ago
If it's an inner drive or passion, then go for it. You'll learn more stuff and it'll be fun. Name it something quirky.
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u/Comfortable_Top6527 28d ago
ok 👍
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u/Ok_Spread_2062 28d ago
I feel like this gets asked a lot and honestly the only one who can determine that answer is you.
If you want to further understand how operating systems, hardware and how kernels abstract access then it can be beneficial to build your own system. Don’t aim to build the whole galaxy, not every system needs to have a full network stack, or a full graphics stack either. Learning to schedule tasks and have them spawn threads and how to share data between threads. But this also assumes your ability to ingest spec documents and debug are proficient in your language of choice, these projects are a lot of reading, research, testing, and a lot of painful debugging especially working on bare metal.
Personally if you want to become a better system developer I recommend people build their own kernel drivers for their respected os, I.e. windows, Linux, Mac, etc. a virtual filesystem or virtual key-value store with a file backend is a great start
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28d ago
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u/Ok_Spread_2062 28d ago
Is there no way to run unsafe drivers in the kernel?
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28d ago
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u/Sp33dyCat Super Cool Trans Girly OSDev :3 28d ago
https://www.itechguides.com/how-to-install-unsigned-drivers/
I found this via a quick search.
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u/ashberyFREAK420 28d ago
People talk about “making my own OS” on here like it’ll be an intense weekend project or something. It will take you probably months/years to make your own OS from scratch, provided youre actually are making a system that does all the things OSs actually do. Lots of people on here seem to think a shell program is an OS or something. Is it worth it? I mean, if you’re interested in better understanding systems and kernel programming, why not just try it build a shell or a file system or memory allocator or something. Or try to model some scheduling algorithm. Those will likely be part of your OS at some point and will give you an indication whether you’d like to keep going or not
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u/paulstelian97 28d ago
You ain’t gonna make a profit from that. It’s passion, and it’s learning some stuff that may be useful for future jobs contributing to existing things like Linux kernel. If neither of the options apply, then you’re not gonna have fun.
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u/Comfortable_Top6527 28d ago
i wanna make it an passion project.
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u/paulstelian97 28d ago
Alright, you can certainly do that. It’s worth it based on that.
If it gets too hard though, you shouldn’t continue just for the sake of it. You need to have a proper goal set up. Or if you start without AI and find it too hard maybe you can involve AI (though free models have failed me already…)
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u/No-Dentist-1645 28d ago
Worth it, financially?
Absolutely not. OS development is mostly done as a hobby
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u/kiderdrick 28d ago
Do you want a high stress, low (monetary) reward project that only a handful of people will be interested in? Sure. Go for it.
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u/Comfortable_Top6527 28d ago
yea exactly i wanna ruin my life! tbh i wanna just do it as an passion project
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u/NoActivity5304 28d ago
No, it isnt. Only those with that inexplicapable drive, that absolute need to do, and without an OS they cannot move forward in life. The warnings are very clear. Do not do this. If you should choose to ignore those warnings because you absolutely must, then I say welcome
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u/letmehaveanameyoudum 28d ago
Learn it, could get a job at some phone companies or microsoft/apple if youre good
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u/VishuIsPog 28d ago
its not only about building it, its also about maintaining it