Starling is based on this existing project which has been modified to run custom programs with cutting edge VGA text mode graphics and an entire 16 colours to work with.
Starling removes all the unnecessary bloat from a traditional operating system such as Linux or Windows. Starling has no ads, no networking, no filesystem and no support for the backspace key (yet...).
Starling is an opportunity to learn some C and x86 assembly. I learnt more about C whilst doing this project than I have since I first touched C in 2010.
To build Starling, you will need the following prerequisites:
- Make
- GCC
- NASM
- Qemu
- A flavour of Linux or WSL
Run make to create the disk image.
NOTE: The makefile will only work on Linux. If you are using Windows, I recommend using WSL with VSCode to build and then Qemu on Windows to test.
Assuming everything works, you can now load Starling.img into Qemu.
I have not and probably will not test this on anything other than a virtual machine. I recommend using Qemu.
To run Starling, use the following command qemu-system-x86_64 -hda Starling.img in the root of the project folder.
Check the docs folder for documentation