[HN Gopher] Fuzix OS
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Fuzix OS
Author : DeathArrow
Score : 69 points
Date : 2026-04-18 15:24 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.fuzix.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.fuzix.org)
| wyldfire wrote:
| > FUZIX is a fusion of various elements from the assorted UZI
| forks and branches beaten together into some kind of semi-
| coherent platform and then extended from V7 to somewhere in the
| SYS3 to SYS5.x world with bits of POSIX thrown in for good
| measure. Various learnings and tricks from ELKS and from OMU also
| got blended in
|
| https://github.com/EtchedPixels/FUZIX#what-does-fuzix-have-o...
| velcrovan wrote:
| Tandy CoCo 3 reference spotted
| jmmv wrote:
| I'm sorry but the landing page at fuzix.org (the top page
| nonetheless) is terrible as it does not even try to explain what
| FUZIX even _IS_. I went to the GitHub project page, which
| contains some more details, but it still doesn 't answer the
| question and only talks about how FUZIX differs from UZI.
|
| To be honest, I still have no idea what I'm looking at.
| ad_hockey wrote:
| The GitHub repo also seems to be archived.
| lproven wrote:
| To quote the comment from higher on the page -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818363 -
|
| << Oh, and don't be fooled by the archived status - it moved
| to
|
| https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX >>
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| Take a guess. The first two words of the web page is "Fuzix"
| and "OS", it can't be that hard.
| tengwar2 wrote:
| An operating system for munitions? An intelligent
| distribution panel?
|
| Seriously, it's not that hard for the maintainer to write one
| sentence describing what the project does.
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| "Munitions"? "Intelligent distribution panel"? Look, the
| UNIX part might not be obvious at all, but if you somehow
| didn't have enough of a rough idea after seeing that many
| retro CPUs and systems listed below, that might say more
| about you than the author.
| lpln3452 wrote:
| You only think that because you already know the answer.
| Your social intelligence is seriously lacking.
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| You only say that because you have skill issues. It says
| "Fuzix OS" so it's probably an OS. It lists platforms so
| it's an OS that runs on these platforms. How is this
| hard?
| swiftcoder wrote:
| > It lists platforms so it's an OS that runs on these
| platforms
|
| That doesn't tell me what it is in a concrete sense. Must
| be hundreds of OS that run on similar hardware - what
| makes this one different?
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| Ah, but at least you do know it's an OS, yes?
| swiftcoder wrote:
| That wasn't ever in doubt. That's also not the relevant
| piece of information - people looking for a summary want
| to know why the thing is worth paying spending time on,
| not random attributes
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| You do realize when you say that you do assume they know
| it's an OS and by that you effectively have to regress
| into using the same level of argument as me just like how
| I assume they don't know it's an OS, right?
| ux266478 wrote:
| I thought it was pretty obvious what it was by applying
| my social intelligence while reading the landing page.
| functionmouse wrote:
| you are not only rude but you are also unhelpful
| kasumispencer2 wrote:
| If this one sentence is rude in your opinion then I have
| very bad news for you
| DeathArrow wrote:
| >it does not even try to explain what FUZIX even IS
|
| Fuzix is a very simple UNIX clone (and a for of UZI) started by
| Alan Cox, an ex-Linux kernel developer) as his retirement
| project.
|
| It aims to run on old CPUs like Z80 and on microcontrollers. I
| found it when searching what OS can I run on the $4 Raspberry
| Pi Pico.
| homarp wrote:
| announce discussion
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8548429
| marcodiego wrote:
| Looks like the project is dead.
| tonymillion wrote:
| Except it's not...
|
| https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
| retrac wrote:
| No I think Alan just moved where it's hosted:
|
| https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX last updated 4 days ago
|
| Alan's currently putting most of his energy into the compiler.
| It's a C compiler in C which can compile itself, and compile
| FUZIX, for 8080 and Z80 targets. The goal is to make it compile
| itself on all the platforms it can run on eventually. :)
|
| https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/Fuzix-Compiler-Kit
| jimmoores wrote:
| It's basically a micro Unix implementation aimed at old and
| resource constrained systems. I've been following it for a few
| years. The documentation is terrible, there are hardy any
| updates, but it does seem to be making slows, steady progress
| behind the scenes. I think it just needs to reach a critical mass
| of functionality and we'll see it popping up on raspberry pi
| picos, 8-bit micros etc. Definitely needs some TLC in the comms
| department though. Oh, and don/t be fooled by the archived status
| - it moved to https://codeberg.org/EtchedPixels/FUZIX
| nunobrito wrote:
| I've seen cases where documentation is seriously lacking but this
| project is quite something.
|
| Was reading the comments, was able to learn more. So I assume it
| provides a command line interface.
|
| Question: Can it run binaries compiled for the platform/OS?
|
| This has been a limitation since forever on ESP microcontrollers
| because they basically have the power of computers and yet the
| flashing limitation of calculators. Would be good to finally be
| able to launch arbitrary binaries without flashing. (I know there
| are tricks right now, just looking for a proper OS-approach).
| retrac wrote:
| Yes. It has Unix style processes. The basic memory model is
| similar to ancient Unix on the PDP-11 without paging. A process
| gets a flat memory space. Processes are swapped out in the
| background as necessary.
|
| How it is implemented varies by platform. On the 8-bit micros
| it takes advantage of bank-switching memory hardware if there
| is any. On the MMUless 68K a flat single address space can be
| used with position-independent code for the processes. On
| platforms with paging or relocation hardware that is used. Most
| of the host platforms do not have hardware memory protection,
| but there's room in the design to support it.
|
| It has been ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico [1] (ARM Cortex-m0+
| based) and could be ported to other microcontrollers which have
| enough RAM.
|
| Toolchain is the biggest problem. It's hard to get a good cross
| toolchain that works. FUZIX's creator has been writing a
| portable C compiler but it's not done yet. The code does
| compile with Clang and GCC but a working toolchain is a steep
| knowledge cliff to climb.
|
| I have got the kernel to build and link for a riscv32i target.
| Just need some real riscv32 hardware to test it on. And free
| time.
|
| [1] https://cowlark.com/2021-02-16-fuzix-pi-pico/index.html
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