Rotterdam, The Netherlands — V2_Lab has released the source code of their V2_OS kernel to the public. According to the group's announcement “From now on everybody is invited to use and develop V2_OS according to the conditions of the GPL licence. Thanks to the overwhelming reactions to the first announcement of V2_OS, V2_Lab has decided to join the open source movement, in order to encourage developers… who have been working on new interesting ideas about V2_OS and to welcome new developers.”

V2_OS is a 32Bit Operating System for 386+ PC's. Full sourcecode is provided in an SDK, which can be found in the download area of the V2_OS web site. V2_OS describes their open source OS as “a brand new Operating System developed by the techies at the V2_Lab (International lab for the unstable media) in Rotterdam. V2_OS offers more speed, expandability, and hardware control for adventurous projects and easy programming FOR FREE!”

Why use V2_OS?

V2_OS was build for speed. Its developers claim that it is “the fastest OS available”. A key feature of V2_OS is its modular architecture, making it easy to add or replace parts of the OS. The kernel is written in assembler, for maximum execution speed. The file system, called V2_FS, is also optimized for speed and is said to “not suffer from things like defragmentation or slack”. Tools are available for accessing the V2_FS filesystem from Linux, DOS, and Windows systems. A Linux drivers is in development that will allow Linux systems to directly MOUNT V2_FS floppies.

The free V2_OS SDK includes a C library that includes code for accessing V2_OS functions from within C programs. The SDK contains sample source code in both assembler and C. Many V2_OS extensions and tools are currently in development, and Open Source contributions to the project have been encouraged. Future enhancements will include a simple GUI, TCP/IP, etc.

 
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