Technology@lemmy.worldbyOptional@lemmy.world
1 day

[Project] Just released: a virtual museum with nearly every OS you can think of...

virtualosmuseum.org English

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/46186245

Want to see the earliest resident monitors? The ancestor of all modern OSes (CTSS)? The earliest versions of Unix? The first OS with a desktop metaphor GUI (Xerox Star Pilot/ViewPoint)? Early versions of mainstream OSes? If you want to explore historical OSes and platforms without having to worry about configuring/installing emulators and OSes or corrupting emulated installations, you’ve come to the right place.

Just about every well-known OS and platform (and also a lot of obscure ones) is included in some form, spanning the entire history of stored-program computing from the Manchester Baby of 1948 (the first stored-program computer) to the present day.

associated blog post

https://andreww591.blogspot.com/2026/05/ive-released-virtual-museum-with-nearly.html?m=1

20
    The Virtual OS Museum
    virtualosmuseum.org
    Over 1,700 pre-installed operating systems spanning 1948 to today, in a single Linux VM. Bundled QEMU, VirtualBox, and UTM. One-click launchers for Windows and Linux.
      • partofthevoice@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4 hours

        I hope this project doesn’t become a playground for LLMs to train working in different environments. I was just thinking, a few days ago, that the claims of Mythos are being overstated but probably don’t need to be… if you could train in countless OSs with access to all the CVEs.

    • Victor@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12 hours

      Or as I’d like to call it, a virtu-OS-o. Hi, I’ve been dad. Thank you for listening.

    • Adam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23 hours

      Added to my seed box will seed for as long as it keeps getting traffic. 10Gbps upload of both versions. Honestly this will most likely be torn apart, reduced or removed soon. I will turn around and upload it to a few other private trackers to keep it alive.

    • aproposnix@piefed.socialEnglish
      15 hours

      Back in the mid 90s i wasn’t able to afford windows so i was using Geos (later renamed to ‘New Deal Office’). Its what actually made me gravitate to Linux because one of my colleagues was surprised i wasn’t using Windows. He was a huge Linux fan and recommended i try it.

    • BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.worldEnglish
      23 hours

      Awesome project, but I fear it will be taken down for legal reasons sadly.

      If you want it, get it now - 121 gb.

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        15 hours

        The full edition includes everything pre-downloaded and can be used fully offline, whereas the lite edition is much smaller and doesn’t include any disk/tape/etc. images for installations, downloading them the first time an installation is run (which means an internet connection is required to run an installation that hasn’t yet been downloaded). The same guest VM installations are available in both editions, and both editions update packages from the same underlying repository.

        Lite Edition: 14GB zipped, 21GB unzipped

        For anyone who can’t just download 121GB in one go

      • Optional@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1 day

        I thought it said 170. But that’s the full version. 20GB for the shell & OS’es d/l a la carte.

        • db2@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1 day

          That’s decompressed, so you’ll actually need near 300 gigs of free space.

          It’s a big download but honestly 500 gig drives are really easy to find, often free.

    • Mwa@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      22 hours

      So i can finally see screenshots of those weird ass Unix variants and CDE??? Hell yeah!