[HN Gopher] MenuetOS - a GUI OS that boots from a single floppy ...
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       MenuetOS - a GUI OS that boots from a single floppy disk
        
       Author : pjerem
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2026-02-03 07:03 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.menuetos.net)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.menuetos.net)
        
       | mrbluecoat wrote:
       | A similar project discussed a couple days ago:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46866544
        
       | p4bl0 wrote:
       | I remember stumbling uppon Menuet when it was still 32 bits only,
       | (probably around 2006?). I tried it, booting from an actual
       | floppy disk at the time. Nowadays, I don't even know where I
       | would find a computer that still has a floppy disk drive. Time
       | flies.
        
         | alnwlsn wrote:
         | I remember doing this too, a little bit later. It would churn
         | on the disk for minutes on end, and usually fail. I think I got
         | it to work once or twice.
         | 
         | Floppy disks and drives were plentiful, but scrap in those
         | days. So of course those were the machines I got to play with
         | as a kid at that time. Many of my disks were not in the best
         | condition, or they were some of the post-2000s ones that were
         | low quality to begin with.
         | 
         | I remember people were making various editions of "mini
         | windows" 3.11 on a floppy disk around that time also.
        
       | reconnecting wrote:
       | I believe I run MenuetOS once over decade years ago. Now it's 26
       | years old since its first release. I can only be jealous of such
       | stamina and wish it prosperous years ahead.
       | 
       | Has it had any commercial success?
        
       | Elfener wrote:
       | Note that the 64-bit version is not open source.
       | 
       | KolibriOS (https://kolibrios.org/en) is an active fork of the
       | open source 32-bit version.
        
         | Tiberium wrote:
         | To be honest, while KolibriOS is open-source, I wouldn't call
         | it "active" that much. MenuetOS has progressed much further
         | than KolibriOS over the years in both performance (it has SMP
         | support!) and being 64-bit.
         | 
         | You can check the commit activity:
         | https://git.kolibrios.org/KolibriOS/kolibrios/commits/branch...
         | - last commit on the first page is already 10 months ago.
         | 
         | And compare it to "News" on the MenuetOS page: - 22.01.2026 M64
         | 1.58.10 released - Improvements, bugfixes, additions
         | 
         | - 26.08.2024 M64 1.53.60 released - MPlayer included to disk
         | image
         | 
         | - 24.07.2024 M64 1.52.00 released - Partial Linux layer
         | (X-Window/Posix/Elf)
         | 
         | - 12.07.2024 M64 1.51.50 released - New graphics designs by
         | Yamen Nasr
         | 
         | - 08.05.2024 M64 1.50.80 released - Fasm-G, many 32 bit apps &
         | sources
        
       | reconnecting wrote:
       | Interview With Ville Turjanmaa, the Creator of MenuetOS (2001)
       | (1)
       | 
       | Ville Turjanmaa: _The current distribution fits to a single
       | floppy and I plan to keep the basic OS functions that way._
       | 
       | -- Man of his word!
       | 
       | 1. https://www.osnews.com/story/93/interview-with-ville-
       | turjanm...
        
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       (page generated 2026-02-05 23:00 UTC)