Collapse OS

Bootstrap post-collapse technology

Collapse OS is a z80 kernel and a collection of programs, tools and documentation that allows you to assemble an OS that, when completed, will be able to:

1. Run on minimal and improvised machines.
2. Interface through improvised means (serial, keyboard, display).
3. Edit text files.
4. Compile assembler source files for a wide range of MCUs and CPUs.
5. Read and write from a wide range of storage devices.
6. Replicate itself.

Additionally, the goal of this project is to be as self-contained as possible. With a copy of this project, a capable and creative person should be able to manage to build and install Collapse OS without external resources (i.e. internet) on a machine of her design, built from scavenged parts with low-tech tools.

Forth reboot in process

You are currently looking at the master branch of the project, which is the first incarnation of Collapse OS, written in z80 assembler. A Forth reboot is being worked on and will soon replace this branch. You can look at it on the forth branch.

See it in action

Michael Schierl has put together a set of emulators running in the browser that run Collapse OS in different contexts.

Using those while following along with the User Guide is your quickest path to giving Collapse OS a try.

Organisation of this repository

• kernel: Pieces of code to be assembled by the user into a kernel.
• apps: Pieces of code to be assembled into “userspace” application.
• recipes: collection of recipes that assemble parts together on a specific machine.
• doc: User guide for when you've successfully installed Collapse OS.
• tools: Tools for working with Collapse OS from “modern” environments. For example, tools for facilitating data upload to a Collapse OS machine through a serial port.
• emul: Emulated applications, such as zasm and the shell.
• tests: Automated test suite for the whole project.
• forth: Forth is slowly taking over this project (see issue #4). It comes from this folder.

Status

The project unfinished but is progressing well! See Collapse OS’ website for more information.

Discussion

For a general discussion of Collapse OS and the ecosystem of technologies and ideas that may develop around it refer to r/collapseos

A more traditional mailing list and IRC (#collapseos on freenode) channels are also maintained.