FlingOS is launching on September 17th, in Bristol, UK. Find out more here.

The following documentation is being written in preparation for our launch which includes a new website. As such, some of the links may not work yet.

Welcome! This is the main repository for the FlingOS™ project. We used to be over on BitBucket but have recently shifted across. The FlingOS project is an educational operating system aiming to provide high-quality resources for learning OS and low-level development. You can find out more on our website over at www.flingos.co.uk. There you'll also find our documentation and links to our tutorial videos.

The FlingOS project is a three part approach to teaching OS and low-level development. You're currently looking at just one part - the code itself. The code acts as a reference codebase for people to learn and compare to. The second part is our reference articles, which explain all the OS and low-level technology is detail. The third part is our tutorials which are free, ~20min videos with complete resources, available on YouTube. You can find the links on our main website.

Take a look at our Getting Started article to learn how to write your own operating system.

The FlingOS source code is here for you to look at, read and compare to. By reading the FlingOS articles and taking a look at our implementations, you should be able to write your own fairly easily.

Join the team and then setup for development.

If you'd just like to use our ahead-of-time compiler to write your own C#, VB.Net or F# operating system, please take a look at our stable releases.

• Documentation : Contains the SHFB documentation project and reference articles. The latest build of the documentation is available onto view on the website.
  • Markdown : Contains the markdown-syntax reference articles.
• Kernel : Contains the main kernel code.
  • Compiler : Deprecated This is the old FlingOS Compiler. It will be deleted soon. Instead, see Drivers/Compiler for the new compiler which can compile both the kernel and drivers.
  • Debug : Deprecated This is the old debugger used in conjunction with the old compiler. A new debugger is being written for use with the new compiler.
  • Drivers : Contains code for kernel mode drivers and the main (/new) FlingOS Compiler.
    • Compiler : Contains the FlingOS Compiler which can compile both drivers and the kernel.
      • App : Contains a command-line app for starting/executing the compiler.
      • Architectures : Contains target architecture libraries (currently x86 and MIPS)
      • MSBuildTask : Contains an MSBuild Task implementation for starting/executing the compiler as an MSBuild post-build task.
      • Tools : Contains 3rd party tools used by FlingOS during building.
    • TestDriver : Contains a C# kernel-mode test driver which is being used for developing the FlingOS ABI.
    • Other : Other folders contain old RAW-build, kernel and user mode test drivers.
  • Kernel : Contains the main kernel project which acts as the root of the system. See Kernel.cs:Main for the primary entrypoint.
  • Libraries
    • Kernel.Core : Contains Core classes but which implement high-level features (such as the main shell).
    • Kernel.FOS_System : Contains replacements for the .NET Framework System and System.Collections classes.
    • Kernel.FOS_System.IO : Contains classes for I/O in a similar way to .NET Framework System.IO namespace does (not direct replacements).
    • Kernel.Hardware : Contains built-in drivers for specific hardware along with some higher features such as scheduling.
    • Kernel.Shared : Contains classes shared between the kernel and drivers. This is essentially the ABI/API from kernel to drivers.
• MIPS : Contains our two preliminray MIPS-targetted testing kernels.
  • Testing1 : A very basic kernel for UBoot Kermit-booting over serial that just uses the LED.
  • Testing2 : A second, slightly more advanced kernel for UBoot Kermit or USB OTG booting that implements a timer setup and interrupt handlers.
• Releases : Contains previous releases of FlingOS.
• Testing : Contains unit and behavioural testing of FlingOS.
  • FlingOops™ : Our cross-platform compiler verification kernel (utilises behavioural testing).
• Tools : Assorted tools written by FlingOS developers to make their lives easier. Speak to Ed Nutting for details.
  • CI20Booter : USB OTG boot tool (uses LibUsb-Win32) for the Creator CI20 board.

FlingOS is released under GPLv2 under UK law. This means you can't just copy and paste our code without keeping our copyright notice and you have to release your work as open-source if it includes our code. Our source code is also released without warranty and we accept no liability (within the restrictions of UK law). Please do not use our code for anything (particularly production or safety critical work) without testing and verifying it yourself.

FlingOS is here for people to learn from by reading and comparing. We are not here to just supply out-of-the-box code so we don't allow people to just reuse our work. Also, we are providing a learning resource not a reference sample. By restricitng the use of our code it helps to prevent the widercommunity accidentally treating us a reference codebase.