Weekly Floss: NodeOS
*These will be daily until I’m caught up*
Since my knowledge mostly rests in JavaScript related things I tend to get very excited when I see things related to Node.js. Low and behold the NodeOS appears before me: https://github.com/NodeOS/NodeOS
Let’s get everyone up to speed first. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime built using the V8 engine built by Google. Its package manager, npm, is one of the largest repositories of packages in the world, and is fairly easy to use. Node is commonly used for application servers but usually is coupled with a load balancer. I have done a few projects using Node and find it simple to use and easy to understand. A plus for Node.js is that it is partnered with the Linux foundation.
Now on to NodeOS. Its tagline is “the first operating system powered by npm,” which is exciting given the breadth of projects on npm, but what does this mean? It means that any library you are currently using with Node on top of your current OS will be natively compatible and accessible.
What about the kernel? Simple, NodeOS currently is build on the Linux Kernel, but instead of running bash, Node is the replacement.
Currently NodeOS is in no position to be used as a main OS, but that is the end goal. As I linked above, the project is hosted on github with instructions on how to get a build running with docker. I have yet to test this out, but I’m thinking that would be an excellent idea for a future blog.
The most exciting part about NodeOS is that once it gets to the point where it stably runs npm, anyone can create an environment for it by simply adding a package to npm.
Hopefully I will be able to follow of this post in the coming weekend with a working build of NodeOS.