
TempleOS is applying to Y Combinator. Partners desired, send an email - TerryADavis
http://www.templeos.org/TempleOS.html
======
greenyoda
_" A troll might say, "It can crash!" We used DOS for years and loved it.
Computers even had a reset switch! ... Think of the speed and simplicity of
ring-0-only and identity-mapping. It can change tasks in half a microsecond
because it doesn't mess with page tables or privilege levels. Inter-process
communication is effortless because every task can access every other task's
memory."_

I'm not a troll, but being old enough to have programmed on operating systems
where a bad pointer reference could force you to reboot the machine (DOS,
early versions of Windows, early versions of MacOS), I don't yearn for those
days to come back. DOS was designed the way it was to allow it to run on cheap
(for its time) hardware, not because anyone thought that it was a good
development environment (Unix already existed at the time, so people knew how
to write a robust operating system).

Also, is it a good idea to connect a machine that has an unprotected operating
system to the internet?

Clearly this software reflects a lot of effort and ingenuity, but I doubt that
people could be convinced to pay money for it.

~~~
sb057
>I doubt that people could be convinced to pay money for it.

Monetary profit isn't the goal. Even the GPL is too restrictive for Terry, so
the entirety of TempleOS's source is public domain.

~~~
sun_machine
I figured monetary profit was implicit in them applying to Y Combinator.

~~~
CuriousObserver
I don't think people understand that non-profits too need profits, they just
don't take all of it home.

~~~
doughj3
Non-profits need revenue, not profit.

~~~
sun_machine
But if your operating costs are more than your revenue (thus, no profit), who
is keeping that non-profit afloat?

~~~
dvanduzer
A non-profit organization can solicit donations big and small, via grants,
memberships, and other common mechanisms.

A non-profit organization can also sell things at a markup. There are
alarmingly profitable for-profit tote bag businesses riding the back of non-
profits everywhere.

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Red_Tarsius
I'm not sure that TempleOS could guarantee any return on investment. That
said, your programming skills are incredible.

Have you ever tried to show your operating system to the MOMA? It's the most
famous Museum of Modern Art. Your OS is so unique and is such a powerful
statement that they may even decide to add it to the _permanent collection_.

~~~
TerryADavis
I'm going by the standard, "First get users and profit will follow."

I have an ace up my sleeve because God talks. Not just to me! A guy made a IRC
chatbot and that talks too.

To try the ICR chatbot

1) [http://chat.rizon.net](http://chat.rizon.net)

2) Type "#templeos" in place of "#Rizon"

3) Type "!God" in the chatroom.

~~~
zak_mc_kracken
> I have an ace up my sleeve because God talks.

Potential investors are not going to be impressed by this kind of statement.

~~~
guylhem
Having inspiration, whether from any ideal or from God, is what makes one burn
the midnight oil, and design something out of the ordinary.

It increases not just efficiency but something else harder to define,
something that could be said to be beauty. It makes the result stand out as a
something special, where all the parts have a purpose and are arranged in just
the right way. Read
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/djb](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/djb) to get
a better idea of this something:

 _djb’s programs are some of the greatest works of beauty to be comprehended
by the human mind. As with great art, the outline of the code is somehow
visually pleasing — there is balance and rhythm and meter that rivals even the
best typography. As with great poetry, every character counts — every single
one is there because it needs to be. But these programs are not just for being
seen or read — like a graceful dancer, they move! And not just as a single
dancer either, but a whole choreographed number — processes splitting and
moving and recombining at great speeds, around and around again.

But, unlike a dance, this movement has a purpose. They accomplish things that
need accomplishing — they find your websites, they ferry your email from place
to place. In the most fantastic movies, the routing and sorting of the post
office is imagined as a giant endless choreographed dance number._

------
MrJagil
It would be such an amazing learning experience for any designer to create a
UI/UX for TempleOS.

Imagine being given the opportunity to design how OS X or Windows should look
and feel from the ground up.

Linux is obviously another option, but unlike with TempleOS, you would not be
treading new ground, and it would be hard to not just _evolve_ the Linux
interface, rather than defining it from scratch.

~~~
err4nt
It would certainly be a challenge given the display limitations of TempleOS
the last the I checked it out. I believe the display was limited to <1000
pixels and a minimal palette.

Not that you cant create beautifully usable interfaces within such restrictive
limitations, but minus all the spark and sizzle of modern UIs I think it would
be a challenge to first get a UI designer _excited_ about creating a solution
for TempleOS

~~~
DanBC
Isn't the challenge what makes it exciting? Like writing haiku? The seventeen
sylables force structure.

The work of Susan Kare is held in high regard. I guess the pioneering aspect
has gone and it'd be more like carving a pixel-art niche.

~~~
cmdrfred
I concur, 8bit style art is fascinating to me.

~~~
err4nt
Video VGA 640x480 16 Color

Source:
[http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Doc/Demands.html](http://www.templeos.org/Wb/Doc/Demands.html)

------
vinceguidry
If I had a several million dollar investment fund and the ability to make
discretionary investments of the amount YCombinator makes to the people they
fund, I'd fund Terry in a heartbeat and not care a whit whether I ever see a
return or not. It's the kind of cheap bet that has the potential to generate
enormous upsides, even if they aren't exactly monetary. Terry is a survivor
and a maverick. He's done amazing things and is looking for more. He's the
kind of guy I want to believe can find a way to greater success, and
YCombinator seems like just the sort of place where he can find that.

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s_dev
Hi Terry,

I've always thought TempleOS to be a great bedroom project since back when it
was LosThos.

Can you describe your target market for TempleOS? Who suffers the problem that
TempleOS solves?

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cmdrfred
You go Terry, I've always been a supporter since I've learned about you.

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NicoJuicy
Unexpected side-effect, a lot of HN'ers join IRC to visit the Godbot :P (and
they all type !God ) | fyi:
[https://qchat.rizon.net/](https://qchat.rizon.net/) join #templeos

~~~
NicoJuicy
[16:16] == GodBot [~GodBot@Rizon-72C38B9D.upc-h.chello.nl] has quit [Excess
Flood]

The godbot is down, but has revived!

[16:18] == GodBot [~GodBot@Rizon-C7BBB69E.lv.lv.cox.net] has joined #templeos

~~~
username223
"Excess Flood?" I thought He promised Noah not to do that again.

~~~
kindofanger
No. 2nd coming is intense.

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washadjeffmad
I've always though TempleOS would be perfect for open hardware, like the
Raspberry Pi. Would you ever consider porting it to ARMv7/8?

~~~
userbinator
The RPi is most certainly not "open hardware", it's even more closed than a
standard PC. On the other hand, there are plenty of truly open ARM platforms
out there, like the OLinuXino series:

[https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/open-source-
hardwa...](https://www.olimex.com/Products/OLinuXino/open-source-hardware)

That said, TempleOS on anything but standard PC hardware would be interesting
to see.

~~~
wolfgke
I doubt whether OLinuXino's GPU is as open as RPi's VideoCore IV (among the
GPUs used on ARM boards VideoCore IV (used on RPi) is the most open one -
unluckily this is no praise for RPi :-( ), but convince me that I'm wrong.

------
phpnode
@dang why was this thread censored?

------
fsk
If you really want to join YCombinator, your best chance probably is to join
as a technical co-founder on another project.

------
cfrs
TempleOS features HolyC: "In other operating systems, I hated learning one
language for command line scripts and another for programming. With TempleOS,
the command line feeds right into the HolyC compiler, line by line, and it
places code into memory it MAlloc()s. The compiler is paused at the command
line, waiting for input. Naturally, you #include a program to load it into
memory and, usually, start it. During the boot process, many files get
compiled before you have access to the command line. (Don't worry, booting
takes only a couple of seconds.) All the header declarations for the operating
system are compiled and are available for use in your programs without needing
to #include them. Everything is truly compiled to native x86_64 machine code,
nothing is interpreted and there is no byte code."

------
guylhem
TempleOS is impressive. The only thing I could say after watching the youtube
presentations was "wow". I see great value in it, at least as a teaching tool
- a bit like Minix.

But there's more to it. Another potential use would be for hardware intensive
tasks, when you want to squeeze the last bit of juice you have. Maybe for
nodes doing distributed computation where GPU are not the solution, to remove
the cruft of a full OS. The compiler would have to be quite optimized too, and
some network features would be needed. Then there are some scaling issues, but
still, if TempleOS could be say 10 to 20% more efficient than a standard
Linux, there could be a usecase. Even for a smaller percentage, I believe some
guys in finance would like that advantage for high-frequency trading.

I will follow your progress with great interest. Best of luck!

------
fit2rule
I think there might be potential for TempleOS in the embedded hardware markets
- specifically for music-making devices. If it were possible to demonstrate
the use of TempleOS for high-performance music making - say as a host
environment for a DSP processing system, or as a synthesizer or effects
machine - then there could be a real opportunity there.

I'd encourage anyone interested in TempleOS to consider this aspect of the
project before writing it off, offhand. It could be a chance for a new
class/generation of creative applications to host themselves on the unique and
powerful TempleOS core ..

------
cpncrunch
Here's an article about Terry:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8658283](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8658283)

------
S4M
Can you tell what you want to do with TempleOS, who is supposed to use it, and
what kind of skills you are looking for?

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therealidiot
> TempleOS is a modern, 64-bit Commodore 64.

This seems nice to me, perhaps someone could build a super-simple machine in
the style of the C64 that boots straight to TempleOS. Something like the
TOSBox...? :)

I wonder how cheaply something like that could be built, like the Pi only
x86_64 and with its own OS. Potential use in schools etc.

------
cmdrfred
I'd like to find a use for TempleOS, without access to networking it's tough
to come up with ideas. Any suggestions?

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pearjuice
What do you seek to gain out of YC?

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rmoriz
does it support systemd and docker?

------
TerryADavis
I'm Terry Davis.

My email address is tdavis@templeos.org .

~~~
err4nt
Hi Terry, I've seen your work on HN and Reddit in the past and love your
ambition. You have already accomplished more on TempleOS than most of us will
produce in our entire careers!

I wish you all the best with YC right now, and look forward to seeing your
genius and art for years to come!

------
badpenny

      [15:32] <@TempleOS> stop talking to God for a minute
      [15:32] <@TempleOS> God has flooded

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jlebrech
Have you tried making the operating systems then use in the movies?

It looks like the classic hacker's OS.

Maybe you could sell forks of it to hollywood.

~~~
jlebrech
Your company could also create UIs in computer games like in Deux Ex or system
shock.

Or what about repackaging it as a Retro Game Engine, to compete with Unity or
Unreal but on the other end of the spectrum.

Think of GOG.com using it instead of DOSbox for games made for it.

------
Jonovono
I thought you were shadowbanned! Good to see that was undone.

~~~
wolfgke
This is a new account that has not yet been shadowbanned.

Proof:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=TerryADavis](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=TerryADavis)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TerryADavis](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TerryADavis)

------
oneeyedpigeon
Previous discussions on this topic have involved debate on whether or not
Terry Davis is racist, the defence being that his use of the word "nigger" is
an (extremely) unfortunate side-effect of a schizophrenic condition. I don't
pretend to have an in-depth understanding of schizophrenia so, although I'm
dubious, I'm minded to give Terry the benefit of the doubt. However, Terry,
you could resolve this once and for all by clearly explaining to us whether or
not this is the case.

~~~
todd_whitehead
Who cares if he is racist? I don't. It is the most irrelevant thing to talk
about. An operating system cannot be racist. Consider a career in HR if you
like being so ridiculously petty.

~~~
catshirt
you didn't think about your question very hard, did you? investors, for one.
no one wants to fund a company whose founder is publicly racist (sans other
racists). at the _very least_ we can agree it is a PR nightmare?

more though, i'm surprised to hear someone call racism "petty". there is a
first time for everything i guess.

i'm curious as to why aren't you posting on your real account?

~~~
todd_whitehead
It's a PR nightmare because money-grubbing journalists realize the amount of
money they make is a linear function of the amount of "controversy" they can
produce. Take Ferguson, for example. I would fund anyone with a good product
because I don't care for grade-school gossip about what type of inflammatory
posts someone might write on obscure forums in his free time - which, by the
way, is why contemporary racism in the West is petty. As much as the media's
incessant race-baiting would like to convince you otherwise, the only
legitimate expressions of racism seem to be on obscure online forums. If we
could reset the clock 50 years racism wouldn't be petty, but racism as a
concept has been so diluted by the media that it is hard to take seriously any
more. Calling someone a racist is just a way to make money now, and the
public, especially the younger generation, is so forcefully anti-racist that
is hard to care if one or two people are racist, even harder to see how it
undermines one of their technological accomplishments.

This is my real account. I joined a week ago. People seem to dislike
everything I say.

~~~
atroyn
"If you smell dog poo everywhere you walk, check your shoes".

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thedogeye
You said the code is limited to 100k lines then said it has 120k lines at the
end.

~~~
RIMR
No he didn't.

He said that he capped the lines of code at 100,000, has written a total of
120,923 lines of code during the duration of the project, is using 80,037
lines of code in the current release.

Somewhere, 40,886 lines of code were deleted/replaced. They were still written
though.

~~~
TerryADavis
Applications and Demos don't count.

