Three months ago, in March of 2002, Bill Hayden announced that he was forking AtheOS [earlier story], porting it to run on top of the Linux kernel and providing wrappers for the BeOS API and Carbon API. The project is now officially named Cosmoe, the Compatible Open-Source Multi Operating-system.

Bill recently released version 0.5.2 of Cosmoe, saying:

"Cosmoe 0.5.2, the 'if only this had been the first release' release, is now available for download on www.cosmoe.com. If you've had trouble compiling Cosmoe in the past, check this release out."

This release solves numerous earlier compilation problems. Find a screenshot of Cosmoe running on a Linux 2.4.18 kernel here. Also of interest is this earlier OSNews interview with Bill. For the full release announcement, read on.

As originally submitted to KernelTrap by gncuster and reported on OSNews, the AtheOS operating system has been forked by Bill Hayden. The new creation is temporarily called New Atheos while Bill secures the domain names and trademark for the official and as-of-yet unnannounced name. Essentially he has merged the AtheOS and BeOS API's, porting it all to run on the Linux kernel. This results in significantly increased driver support, powerPC support, and the ability for most BeOS programs to compile and run with little or no changes. There has not yet been any source released, nor a date set for the official release.

Bill says, "I forked Atheos about 6 months ago and have been continuously developing it since that time. I've taken it in some very new directions. I should warn you that some of you will absolutely love the changes, and some of you will perhaps feel that the "dream" of Atheos has been sold out." Bill's announcement and much of the resulting thread follows. Find more information about AtheOS in this earlier review from OSNews.