QNX OS - Back to Home
About a week ago, I was searching around the internet for various weird operating systems, and I came across QNX OS, a very obscure UNIX-like OS now owned by BlackBerry. It's usually used in embedded systems, especially cars, but due to boredom, I decided to try & install it on one of my desktops.
The installation image I was using was a QNX demo disk from the late 1990s. It was originally designed to boot off of a single 3.5" floppy disk, but I used the CD image version instead for the sake of convenience. From what I can tell, the CD & floppy versions are completely identical.
Getting it to boot took quite a bit of effort, though. It wouldn't do anything at all on the Presario SR1214NX or the Prosignia 320, and it would freeze up mid-boot on the HP 500B. Eventually, after much trial & error, I got it booted on the Pavilion 7840.
The archaic UI design immediately reminded me of a bootleg Windows 9x version, which I found humorous. One of the pre-bundled programs with the demo is a web browser, but it's near useless now since it can't use HTTPS. There's apparently a later QNX demo disc with a lot more apps, but I couldn't find a working download for it online.
If you're interested in messing around with this near useless OS, you can download it here:
QNX Floppy Demo (IMA)
QNX CD Demo (ISO)