[b-free 19] B-Free Manifesto Expanded English Version

nozom-o@aix.or.jp
Wed, 26 Jun 1996 18:21:34 +0900

 はじめまして。大西 望 と申します。

 電脳丸こと長谷川さんからお誘いいただきまして、このたび参加させていただくこと
になりました。得意技は英語なので、その方面での貢献をさせていただきたいと考えて
おります。(残念ながらプログラムは書けない・・・あうあう)

 おみやげと言ってはなんですが、拡張英語版B−Free宣言の私案を作りましたの
で、ご検討いただければと思います。HTMLのタグ入りですので、そのままホームペ
ージに持って行けます。ネイティブ・チェックは入れていませんので、細かい文法上の
誤りがあちこちにあることは確実です。しかし、英語はわかればいいんです。わかれば

 あと、「英語の手紙は私のところへ」とやっちゃってますが、これでいいでしょうか

 いろいろお世話になりますが、よろしくお願いいたします。

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B-Free manifesto

B-Free Manifesto


Introduction to the Free Computer Operating System Development Project with Business TRON Specifications: "B-Free Project"


Welcome to B-Free! This document is a declaration of our intention to create a computer operating system based on Business TRON specifications.

What is Business TRON and What is TRON Project?

Business TRON specifications are derived from TRON (The Real-time Operating system Nucleus) Project which aims to build a total architecture of future computer society. The TRON project was started by a computer architect, Professor Ken Sakamura of Tokyo University, about ten years ago. Since then, the project has been developed into four sub-projects, namely Industrial TRON, Communication and Central TRON, Business TRON and Macro TRON. The outcome of the TRON project and specifications of these sub-project are open to public. Anyone who acknowledges their value and interested in implementation of the TRON specifications can develop his/her own computer systems according to the TRON specifications. The relations between these four projects are as follows:

Industrial TRON Project (ITRON): ITRON is a computer operating system for mainly industrial use. ITRON-OS enables pre-emptive, multitask operation within embedded computer systems. It gained popularity among Japanese manufacturers as a de facto standard of embedded OS. Latest version of the ITRON-OS is Micro ITRON3, which could be used as a central kernel of personal computer system.

Communication and Central TRON Project (CTRON): CTRON system is designed to create networks of computers. It can set up links between industrial embedded systems and personal computers together, creating an infrastructure of information superhighways. Since it aims for supporting large-scale multitask job, many CTRON-OS are implemented for telephone switching machine.

Business TRON Project (BTRON): BTRON is a operating system for personal use such as workstations or personal computers. Unlike the other personal computer operating systems, BTRON is designed to make the most efficient use of computer resources for Graphical User Interfaces (GUI). As a result, BTRON can be used with minimal hardware which could be affordable to anyone. One important feature of BTRON OS is hypertext file system. It is just like HTML, but far easier and extremely efficient file system which enables us to use computers as our external brain.

Macro TRON Project (MTRON): The ultimate goal of the TRON project is to establish MTRON. The idea of the MTRON is a massive network of computers could be considered as an integrated computer at macro level. The systematic cooperation among these computers should require some sort of operating system of which the Macro TRON project aim to find out. Macro TRON is expected to be used in extreme environments such as space stations or underwater laboratories.

Goal of the B-Free Project

The purpose of the B-Free project is to make a computer operating system with the BTRON specifications. The tentative name of the OS is "B-Free OS". "B" stands for BTRON and "Free" indicates our intention to make it free to anyone who is interested in creating computer society through the TRON Project.

Currently, we are working for design and coding which is suitable for CPUs more than 32 bit use. Micro-kernel technology is adopted into the B-Free OS, and it aims to work as a multi-task operation with fine human-machine interfaces. In addition, the B-Free OS will be designed to support TRON multilingual environment, which enables computers to display, edit, and communicate in virtually any languages in the world. The adoption of the TRON multilingual environment is our counter-proposal to the Unicode or ISO10646-1 multilingual coding system, which lacks respect to the diversity of languages and thus massive insult to the cultural heritage of human race.

You may think that creating an operating system by a group of enthusiast would be an act of Don Quixote, but we are encouraged with the following facts and be inspired to start our project.

  1. Quite a few number of ITRON-OS have been developed and implemented by personal efforts.
  2. ITRON kernelled BTRONs have already made as BTRON2 and BTRON3.
  3. Linux, a UNIX-like operating system, was initiated by Mr. Linus B. Torvalds in Finland. If Linux is possible, why not B-Free?

When we complete the development of B-Free OS, it will be freely distributed including source codes for further improvements or development of application programs. With the B-Free project, we hope to contribute global society to provide an alternative computer operating system.

Project Target

We plan to develop the following outcome:
  1. Computer operating system with BTRON specifications for 32 bit CPUs such as 80386 or PowerPC.
  2. Source codes of the operating system.
  3. Self-development environment
  4. Application programs
  5. Documents relevant to the B-Free OS

Copyright

Although the B-Free OS will be freely distributed, copyright remains to the project members.

Contacts

We appreciate any suggestion or proposal to the project. If you wish to write e-mails in English, please mail to Nozomu "Nobby" Onishi (Mr.)(nozom-o@aix.or.jp). In Japanese, Mr.HASEGAWA Tohru (NBF01763@niftyserve.or.jp) will deal with your letter.

Reproduction of this Document.

You can reproduce this document as long as you do not make any changes to the original.


Copyright: B-Free Project

English translation prepared by Nobby Onishi, June 25, 1996

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