Powerful and safe operating system based on Linux.
NightOS is a desktop environment which is based on a custom Linux distribution. It uses the Electron and NodeJStechnology to access the filesystem, manage the network connections, and manage applications safely.
How does it work?
NightOS works as a very large JavaScript application, that runs on a Linux + Electron base. This project aims to demonstrate the power of JavaScript by making a full O.S. with this language, so the most tasks that can be handled by it will be done using JS. The Linux system works as an interface, a layer that allows JavaScript to manage the network connections, access the hard drive, and some other low-level things.
What? (Again) Another O.S.? For what purpose?
NightOS is a purely theorical operating system. I don't know if I'll make a working version of NightOS one day, and even if I do, that will be a very unsecured O.S. because I don't know many things about programming security (even basic things such as buffer overflows, ROPs...) ; in fact the only security techs I know about are general things like encryption, certificates, checksums and IPC for example - not enough at all for a full system.
In fact, I made NightOS more for fun and using more deep JavaScript and Node.js features. I do not aim at all to make a better O.S. than Windows, Mac or Linux - not even making an alternative to them. Making an O.S. full of JavaScript is simply not possible due to many problems, like the slow speed of JS in front of native languages like C++ or Rust, and the problem for developpers to port their applications to NightOS (even if there are tools for that, like Emscripten).
It's also a way to demonstrate the power of the JavaScript language, which is I think the most misunderstood one in the development world. By making a system fully functionnal that manages a Linux system, applications, a desktop environment, multiple user accounts, several processes, a large API and processes isolation, I think this could be a great proof that JavaScript is a powerful language - when you understand it and know how to use its deep features.
Differences with the previous versions of the system
v1 has a lot of problems, and v2 was not enough complete to be an operating system. So I decided to restart the project from scratch, and keeping just the main ideas of the project (a really strong security, permissions for apps...) and I made this new version of NightOS.
There's some similar points with the older versions: the system still works with applications, that need permissions in order to access the storage/web/manage windows/... but now the permissions system is much stronger, much permissive and it's now possible to make unpackaged applications, programs that run without having to be installed (like .exe on Windows, but with permissions).
So, even if you find the two old versions really bad, this one is very different, so I hope you'll enjoy it ;) !
Computer requirements
NightOS can run on any low-end computers. You don't have to worry about the performances of your machine. If you really want to have specifications, here there are:
- At least 200 Mb of free RAM, 500 Mb recommended ;
- Any low-end processor ;
- A hard drive (that would be nice), a mouse, a keyboard and a screen.
That's all! Relax and enjoy :).
Installation
Installation requires NodeJS, NPM and Git installed on your machine. On Linux, you can run
sudo apt-get install nodejs npm git. On Windows, simply visit these three websites to get the installation programs of each software.
To install NightOS, open a command-line and run the following code :
git clone https://github.com/ClementNerma/NightOS # Download NightOS
cd NightOS # Go to the NightOS directory
npm install # Install the npm dependencies
npm start # Start NightOS ; `node start.js` also works
You can also run NightOS in development mode (see more in the docs):
# The simple way
npm run dev
from https://github.com/ClementNerma/NightOS
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