NOS – the network Operating System
NOS- “the Network is the file system”
DOS but replace Disks with Networks
What is NOS?
- NOS is an entirely new way to manage and work on the Atari using remote file systems of unlimited space instead of 90k floppy disk “images.”
- NOS is like DOS but Network not Disk
Imagine a system that swaps the disk sectors on a floppy disk with network blocks of data that are stored on a remote system.
Today that is TNFS (Trivial Network FileSystem) and NOS. When you boot the NOS ATR via FujiNet on your Atari you arrive at a command line interface like SpartaDOS or a UNIX shell. You can have drives attached and perform normal DOS like commands on those drives – execute binaries, copy, rename, move delete files. But those files are stored on the network somewhere at the other end of the TNFS- usually a Linux based system. There are only the limits of the local Linux filesystem for the ‘size’ of that disk – now petabytes. All your Atari files can now exist on the network and be accessed in one place, one hierarchy with NOS.
How does one utilize NOS?
Extract all your Atari files from all the floppies and ATRs you currently use and put them into a TNFS server (usually a Linux system). Boot the NOS ATR from the same TNFS server via FujiNet and then mount the NOS drive to the folder on the server where you put all your files. That’s all. Now you can have every file you’d ever need all in one place to use. No need for any floppies, or ATRs or hard drive images on CF or anything- unlimited space for every Atari file you’ve ever needed.
- The NOS is perfect for very rapid prototyping and programming on the Atari, as you create and edit and compile or run files you are working on they are available right there as files to just run from within NOS.
- NOS supports the XEP-80II and 80 columns
- NOS is a cli like SpartaDOS(x) – not like Atari’s Menu-based DOS/DUP
Links for NOS
- https://github.com/FujiNetWIFI/fujinet-nhandler/tree/master/nos
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp0fjKt2w3g – video from TCH
More to come!