The question on the OS got me thinking.

How did OS worked on “intermediate device”. by that I mean stuff that are too advanced to be just a few logical gates and EPROM, but before the time where most electronic devices are a computer running Linux

Stuff like phone from the 00’s before android, digital camera, washing machine and other devices which were already quite advanced (Some could already run java) but not at the point to be “just an embedded computer running some hardware” Did they already had an OS ? Was it a minimalist home-made one bought to a third party ? Or was it still mostly working by counting bytes and drawing truth table ?

  • gregorumEnglish
    1•9 months ago

    Back in 1994, there was once a company called General Magic that tried to make a smart device and OS. It was a colossal failure due to the limitations of hardware at the time, but it heavily influenced everything that came afterwards.

    Check out an article about it and the trailer to a documentary about it here: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/