What if I told you there is an immensely popular operating system that you likely used it at least once, but did not realise what it was?
In fact, it is so popular and important there is an IEEE standard based on it.
It is uncanny how immensely popular AND immensely obscure this system is.
It is scary that until today I have never even heard of its reference desktop implementation.
The system is called "TRON".
🧵 thread~
p.s. thanks @fkinoshita for the pointer!
Well, to be more precise, the system I am about to show you is called B-right/V release 4.5 from 2006. It is an implementation of BTRON, Business TRON specification. You can think about it this way: FreeBSD is a UNIX system. Bright/V is a TRON system.
TRON, or The Real-time Operating system Nucleus, began as an open architecture project by Japanese professor Ken Sakamura in 1984. There are multiple sub-projects, including ITRON for electronics and cars, BTRON for desktops and PDAs, CTRON for telecoms, and many more.
There is a lot of information on its English website http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/homepage.html but it barely scratches the surface.
Yes, TRON was used for NTT DoCoMo i-mode phones and some Roland synthesisers, and most camera operating systems are also TRON forks. Yes, it runs on pretty much any 8, 16 or 32 bit architecture you can think of. Yes, it was used in home automation and cars, too.
But this system is also the basis for Mentor Graphics Nucleus RTOS, and eCos and RTEMS APIs, and that makes it BIG.
Space probes, smart phones, dumb phones, calculators, and even some Intel motherboard chips are running TRON systems or their derivatives.
This system is THAT big. Perhaps, today there are more choices among embedded operating systems, and more devices are simply running Linux, but I think the claim that in 2003 TRON used to be the most popular operating system is somewhat substantiated.
Now, tell me, HOW COME no one in the West have heard about desktop version of TRON that could run on i286/386, and, from what I can tell, Sun workstations?
Edu-rant is over, time to show you the system :D Follow me!
These days, finding the installation media for the B-right/V OS itself can be hard. But the operating system is still sold on Amazon as "Chokanji V, TRON runs on Windows" input system. 超漢å—V means "Super Kanji 5", by the way. There is MacOS X version, too.
Either version is just installing BTRON in VMWare, and runs the input method somewhat seamlessly.
Archive.org has installation media for B-right/V 4.5 from 2006, but it will not run in Qemu properly. https://archive.org/details/chokanji
The iso contains a file called bright00 which is a boot floppy for B-right/V installer. It should work on most i386-based computers, but it requires supported CD, IDE and mouse. After a bit of tinkering with PCem, I managed to make it work.
The installer shows not one but two splash screens: B-right/V TRON OS first, and Chokanji V second. Then it starts a very simply-looking disk partitioning and OS installing tool. Make no mistake, at this point TRON OS is already running. The mouse cursor is a bit funny/unusual, showing cup of green tea whenever there's a delay ("hourglass").
While it loads, you might contemplate: why did they bother to make a whole OS? Well, my dear friends, they needed a system that could support kanji, RTL and vertical input before Unicode was invented.
Nina Kalinina
mmu_man