Visopsys OS on the OptiPlex 780 - Back to Home
One thing I've always been fascinated by is strange operating systems, like QNX OS or KolibriOS. Recently, while searching around for random old OSes, I found out about Visopsys, an obscure OS that's been developed by a single person since 1997. Despite that, it boasts quite an impressive list of features, including fully fledged networking, support for FAT32 & EXT file systems, and virtual memory. That said, it's still rather rough around the edges, which you'll see in this article.
When you first boot, you get a choice between installing it, and running it off the CD. Just getting to the boot screen was 90 percent of the work, though.
I tried to boot Visopsys on 4 different computers: the HP 500B, the Prosignia 320, the Presario SR1214NX, and the Presario SR5152NX. Every time, it hung at a BIOS error. It also did this on VirtualBox, too. Because of this, I figured that there might be some BIOS setting causing issues, but no matter what I tried, it never worked.
Coincidentally, during this time, I was in the process of retiring my old OptiPlex 780 from service. I had used it as a secondary PC for over a year, but it was time to make room on my desk for something else. Since it was moving to the basement anyways, I figured I'd try to boot Visopsys on it, because you might as well try.
Much to my shock, it booted to the installer screen instantly. This makes no sense to me, since the HP 500B that it failed on has almost identical specs to the 780. If anyone knows what might've caused this, let me know.
The user interface is easily the best part of Visopsys. It's easier to use & better looking than modern Windows, and even most Linux desktop environments. I�m a huge fan of the very late 2000s high detail icons. The included programs all worked fine, although I didn't try networking, since getting wired internet through my basement is a nightmare.
Visopsys seems to really hate keyboards & mice. My regular KB/M with a PS/2 to USB combo adapter didn't work, but that wasn't surprising, since even Windows hates it sometimes. I plugged in a normal USB mouse, which worked for about 15 minutes before it stopped working with a similar error message.
I disassembled the 780 to clean out the year of dust it had accumulated, and I noticed that the hard drive caddy has a built in fan, which I've never seen on any other PC. Makes sense, considering how hot SFF PCs can get.
With the 780 being relegated to the basement, the number of computers next to my workbench rises to 10. Very soon, that number will rise much higher, which I'm excited to share with y'all in the coming months.
As for Visopsys, despite the technical bugs, I want to give a huge thanks to Andy (the sole dev) for continuing the project after all these years. Hobby operating systems like this are very rare, and the amount of time & skill required is astounding to me.
If you want to give Visopsys a try yourself, you can find all the downloads at visopsys.org/download/.