A Modern Operating System in 1.44MBs

Summary

The video explores an obscure operating system called Calbri OS that can run on very low-end 90s computers with only 8MB of RAM. The host tests it out on a 1998 Pentium II system. He finds that despite the OS's tiny 1.44MB size, it includes many applications like games, image viewers, text editors, and even web browsers. However, issues like lack of sound, video, and networking support mean it can't be a true daily driver OS. Overall it seems useful for basic tasks but too limited for practical daily use.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video is about testing out an old operating system called Calbri OS that can run on vintage hardware
• 💻 Calbri OS is only 1.44 MB in size and can run on a Pentium CPU with just 8 MB of RAM
• 📀 The OS was loaded onto a floppy disk and tested on a 1998 IBM Aptiva with a Pentium 2 CPU
• 😟 Initially there were issues getting keyboard/mouse input working but USB peripherals worked
• 🌐 Without network connectivity, some features like the web browser could not be tested
• 🖥️ The OS includes basic apps like a file manager, text editor, and some games
• 🎮 The 3D graphics demos struggled and caused 100% CPU usage on the Pentium 2 system
• 🔈 Could not get audio working even with different sound cards tested
• 💾 Able to view images from a USB drive but video playback did not work
• 👍 Overall the OS shows impressive optimization to run on such minimal vintage hardware

Q & A

What operating system did the person find that runs on a floppy disk?

The operating system they found was called Calbri OS. It is small enough to fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy disk.

What are the minimum system requirements for Calbri OS?

Calbri OS has very low minimum requirements, only needing 8 MB of RAM and a 60 MHz Intel Pentium CPU.

What programming language is Calbri OS written in?

Calbri OS is written completely in Assembly language rather than Linux or another common kernel.

Why couldn't the person get a mouse and keyboard working at first?

Initially the PS/2 mouse and keyboard weren't detected. Switching to USB peripherals allowed them to work.

What kind of programs and utilities does Calbri OS include?

Calbri OS includes games, demos, file managers, image viewers, text editors, spreadsheets, web browsers, and other basic utilities.

How well were the 3D graphics demos able to run?

The 3D demos ran very slowly, using 100% CPU usage. This is likely due to software rendering and the limitations of the older Pentium II CPU.

Was the person able to get sound working on the computer?

No, even after trying multiple sound cards, they were unable to get audio output working on the machine.

Could they play video files from a USB drive?

No, the included video player was unable to properly play back the video files from the USB drive.

What are some limitations of using Calbri OS daily?

Lack of support, very limited hardware compatibility, inability to play media, and lack of networking make Calbri OS impractical for daily use.

What other OS did the person recommend for old PCs instead?

They recommended Tiny Core Linux as a good alternative OS for daily use on old computers, with better support and hardware compatibility.

Outlines

00:00

😄 Exploring an obscure operating system called Calbri OS

The paragraph introduces Calbri OS, an obscure operating system that can fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk. It describes the minimal system requirements of Calbri OS and the author's interest in trying it out on an old Pentium computer to see if it can breathe new life into old hardware.

05:00

🖥️ Booting up Calbri OS and examining the interface

The paragraph details the process of writing the Calbri OS image to a floppy disk and booting it on an old IBM Aptiva computer from 1998. It examines the graphical interface, built-in apps and games, and notes the heavy CPU usage of some demos.

10:01

😕 Trying to get sound working and testing media playback

The paragraph describes unsuccessful attempts to get sound working in Calbri OS by trying different sound cards. It then tests media playback by accessing a USB drive, viewing images successfully but unable to play video files.

Keywords

💡Calri OS

Calri OS is a tiny open source operating system that can run off a single 1.44MB floppy disk. It is the main subject of the video, as the narrator explores whether this lightweight OS can breathe new life into old computers like the 1998 IBM Aptiva he tests it on.

💡Old computers

The theme of the video is trying out the Calri OS on old computers like the 1998 IBM Aptiva to see if its small size and low requirements can make them usable again. The narrator discusses the Aptiva's 400MHz Pentium 2 CPU and other aged specs.

💡Floppy disk

Calri OS fits on a 1.44MB floppy disk. The narrator goes through the process of writing the OS image to a floppy in order to boot the IBM Aptiva off of it.

💡Assembly language

Unlike expected, Calri OS is written entirely in assembly language rather than being Linux-based. This allows it to run in tiny memory footprints.

💡Software rendering

When testing the 3D demos, the narrator notes they are using 100% CPU for software rendering due to the lack of a dedicated GPU. This slows down the graphical performance.

💡Drivers

Getting peripherals like sound cards to work proves tricky, likely due to a lack of drivers for the dated hardware on the IBM Aptiva system.

💡Everyday use

While interesting, the narrator concludes Calri OS has limited real-world usability for daily driving old hardware due to lack of modern software and hardware support.

💡Alternatives

For practical use of old PCs, the narrator suggests tiny core Linux may be a better choice thanks to its improved support.

💡Compression

The video marvels at how Calri crams so many apps like games, file managers, and even a spreadsheet onto a floppy thanks to highly optimized assembly code and compression.

💡Demo

Much of the video involves the narrator demoing and testing the various built-in applications and features of the Calri OS to evaluate its capabilities.

Highlights

The OS is called calbri OS, can fit on a single 1.44 MB floppy disc, and only needs 8 MB of Ram with a 60 MHz Intel penium CPU

Calbri OS is 100% written in Assembly Language and is a fork of Min menu bro am I stupid menu at OS

To get the OS image to a floppy disc, the process was downloading on Linux, copying to a Windows NT machine, then using disk write to write to the floppy

The test machine is an IBM AB diva from 1998 with a 400 MHz Intel Pentium 2, 96 MB of RAM and an ATI Radeon 7000

The OS desktop has many icons and looks very full featured for just 1.44 MB

The file manager looks very similar to Windows XP/Vista with its design

There are 3D and 2D demos, reminiscent of Silicon Graphics Iris workstation demos from the 90s

Running the demos uses 100% CPU - clear example of software rendering limitations

Impressive list of apps: spreadsheet, web browser, FTP, etc all in 1.44 MB due to compression

No sound card was detected, tried several cards unsuccessfully to get audio working

Images work from USB drive, but video does not play

OS can bring old computers to life, but lack of support limits daily use

Tiny Core Linux better for daily use on old hardware

Calbri OS good for getting old system running to copy files

Cool to run so much on 1.44 MB, but not very practical overall

Transcripts

one night I was hanging out with a

couple friends just looking at a bunch

of different operating systems until we

found one that actually looked kind of

interesting what we found was calbri an

operating system so small it can fit on

a single 1.44 MB floppy disc and it has

super low minimum requirements only

needing 8 MB of Ram with a 60 MHz Intel

penium CPU yeah this thing is so well

optimized that it could run on the OG

Pentium so I want to give this thing a

try and see really what calri OS is all

about and see if it could potentially

bring some new life some old

[Music]

computers while I was doing my research

on cbri OS I actually was really

surprised my first initial look of this

operating system I thought it would be

Linux based because W what other kernel

would it be but no this is actually 100%

written in Assembly Language and is a

fork of Min menu bro am I stupid menu at

OS okay yeah I guess I'm a little stupid

definitely want to check out minu in a

different video all right so now we got

to get this to a floppy disc which at

first I was kind of unsure on how to do

because while I do have an external USB

floppy Drive I don't have a way to write

the image to a floppy on Linux but if

I'm being honest I just didn't look hard

enough so what I ended up doing is I

downloaded the image off the website

extracted it copied it to my server then

I hopped on Windows

[Music]

NT

copied my files off the server and then

use dis right to write the image to the

floppy disc now with the image ready to

go we're all good now what computer am I

going to use to test this first well

that's where this computer comes into

play what I have here is an IBM AB diva

from 1998 equipped with a 400 MHz Intel

Pentium 2 96 MB of RAM and an ATI Radeon

7000 this computer was given to me by

some cowboy hat wear and viewer of the

channel this computer is actually quite

special because it's still running its

OEM copy of Windows 9 first edition I

will definitely be Imaging the contents

of this drive but with all that aside

it's time to actually plug in the

machine and boot off that

floppy oh okay uh ATI Radeon ve 640x 480

okay so this is options for before you

start I'm assuming so essentially what

this is doing is making a ram disc and

just decompressing the OS into the said

Ram

disc oh

oh wow wow

okay

so I don't have a

mouse or keyboard I don't know what's

going on there either I don't have a

mouse or keyboard or the thing is frozen

which I mean I don't know why but let's

give this thing a bit of a restart all I

want to to check this really quick so

you can change the video settings we can

do 1024x 768 with 32bit color okay let's

boot with this I pose uh here we

go uh okay it froze again and it froze

on setting Mouse you know I have an idea

so I'm currently using PS2 peripherals

which I mean they should work ideally

but uh I have this cheap uh USB Optical

Mouse and I have this cheap little USB

keyboard uh I'm just going to plug that

in and see if maybe it'll detect that

somehow it also could be that there's

the bio setting that I have to set that

I haven't done yet but uh we'll look in

the Bios if this doesn't

work oh oh oh my PS2 peripherals work

and this USB Optical Mouse does work too

okay well I mean it doesn't matter now

uh I can just use my normal peripherals

cuz we're we're in you know with the

amount of icons that I'm seeing on this

desktop this looks very ful featured for

just being 1.44 megab big Let's see we

have welcome oh my page not available

well I don't have a network card in this

machine uh because it was removed and I

don't have an extra network card I can

throw into this thing so we're just

going to live without networking so if

we go to game center okay wow that's a

that's a lot of games well we got to go

play my favorite game mind

sweeper oh yeah go for the corners

first

bro I mean I guess it's enough of that

[ __ ] okay so this thing has okay that's

a file manager uh what is that whoa okay

so immediately when I open this file

manager this looks like the same file

manager that you would see on Windows XP

or not not the same but like it looks

very similar to the file manager on

Windows XP or maybe like the file

manager on Vista like it has this like

design over here I don't know okay but

this thing

okay and there's another one so we have

three file managers why can this one

connect to FTP uh no I don't see any FTP

functions can this one do it

about okay I mean I don't know you know

it ain't that bad I mean we got

a what tiny pad tiny pad okay well yeah

that's that's enough there you know give

this credit you know this is actually

like really cool you know the fact that

this could even just like run on a

system that this old okay so I couldn't

help but notice when I was in here

there's a demos there's a well first

there's a 3D

folder oh okay so we have 3D demos here

oh what I don't know why but this kind

of reminds me of like 3D flower box the

screen saver and dozens of versions of

Windows wait what we're using 100% CPU

usage rendering a [ __ ] Cube really oh

Jesus Christ so this is software

rendering whoa what the

[ __ ] okay okay okay okay the frame is

are dropping the frame are the frame has

drop I can look around though can I oh

you can move with arrow keys except

maybe not because for some reason I

can't get out of this corn bro I okay

well something is moving me into the

back of this corner I don't know what

that is I'm not pressing anything oh oh

is it my

mouse it is you use the mouse to control

this this is kind of weird oh [ __ ] 30

FPS on Gears unsupported processor

instruction okay well you know that

makes sense with the CPU this old I

would expect to get that air at least a

couple times okay so these are just like

little 2D

demos whoa whoa these are like screen

savers what look at that okay so this

one really reminds me of like a silicon

Graphics demo from like the '90s you

know what I'm talking about like on the

older Iris workstations like they would

have some demos like this I don't know

it kind of looks like that to me I

cannot help but notice having most of

these demos open use like 100% of CPU

usage look let's open that again oh yeah

CPU load 100 system panel okay so this

is just settings graphic bench huh test

okay I don't know what's going on it's

testing my Graphics Hardware okay so all

of these are just CPU ID you can see CPU

clock speed 400 MHz Intel Pentium 2 Skin

config okay so this this is cool you can

just change basically what the entire

thing looks like through this little

menu here Ram discs oh okay ghost

monitor I like that it's called ghost

monitor that's

just okay system monitor I mean if you

wanted a second task manager I mean I

guess it's there this operating system

seems to have just like two of

everything that's like that's

interesting web view this is a very

basic web browser that's crazy there

even is a web browser in here and

there's a second one net surf uh okay so

we don't have a network adapter so we're

just not going to be able to use net

surf because I I don't have I don't have

Network and it's trying to download

something so H not mounted we're open

app plus anyway icon edit Easy Shot

guide table oh okay so we do have an FTP

client that's nice to have actually okay

this single floppy disc would be

actually great great to use when I'm

trying to fix old computers because

sometimes I just need something to work

so I can copy files to something or

whatever and this this kind of looks

like it would do the trick okay so this

is still download trying or trying to

download can I get this to go away

Graphics we have an image viewer we have

graph building utilities yeah

spreadsheets man we got spreadsheets we

have all of this in 1.4 megabytes that

is some mindblowing compression

algorithms that is crazy bro I'm just

too good

okay the computer is

losing the computer is

losing I am better than this penum 2o

look look guys

look [ __ ] you bro I could literally have

a field [ __ ] I could literally have a

field day on this dude all right so like

quick secret I've never been good at

Flappy Bird not even when I was younger

you know I might be monkey brain but

this is is actually kind of fun so I'm

wondering what kind of programs you can

like can you is there a package manager

on here can you like install their

programs is there like a repository what

kind of thing are we looking at here

okay well you know I'm going to grab a

USB drive with some stuff on it to test

on here actually hold on can we see if

we have sound

volume

uh okay so I'm going to go and just say

that we don't have sound do I throw a

sound card in here and see if that'll

work so uh I have two options if I

really want to get sound working since

it's not detecting the onboard sound

here it's some Crystal chip or whatever

I have this which is a sound blaster

autog platinum or I have this which is

an older Sound Blaster live this is an

older version of The Sound Blaster Live

card that I have in my 98 box but uh I

was thinking that maybe if I throw one

of these in there we can have sound

it'll have drivers for this I

don't I don't know if there's like a

like a hardware compatibility list

somewhere that I can look at or what all

right so it's a few days later and I

have a USB with some media just to test

this with and since the last time I was

looking at this thing I still have not

gotten sound to work I've tried all

different sound cards I even pulled the

sound card from my Windows 98 box and

put it in here still didn't work also

this screen saer is sick by the way but

uh let's wake this thing up I'm just

going to put in my USB and see if it

just pops up okay it is right there yes

all right so let's try the first image

here oh you look at that beautiful a11

MR2 huh

huh all right so now to try this video

Let's see uh is there not a video

there's dos boox on here okay well

that's kind of crazy there's dos box on

here I didn't even see that before I

mean f play looks like it's supposed to

be the uh like the the video player but

but it doesn't seem to be working can I

open that yeah uh okay well it doesn't

seem to be hm there's just like an

asterisk there it's does that mean it's

running I don't think that video is

going to play unfortunately but hey you

know what at least we got the uh the

images overall I think this OS is

actually kind of cool so going back to

the question I had in the beginning of

the video can it bring some new life

into these older computers I would say

yes kind of the only reason why I say

kind of is because yeah it's cool and it

works but there isn't really any real

support for it I kind of see it as like

a good way to maybe get a computer up

and running if you need to use something

to copy files to it or something like

that I I do not see how anybody could

use this as a daily driver if you wanted

to use an old computer as a daily driver

and have some Modern support for things

I would probably use tiny core Linux but

with that being said like it if you like

it dislike if you hate old computers and

calri Os or if you just hate me I have a

bunch of cool videos coming up soon so

definitely stay

[Music]

tuned

oh