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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Frank-os is working!!!!!

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gadgetjack
Senior Member

Joined: 15/07/2016
Location: United States
Posts: 207
Posted: 01:10am 07 Apr 2026
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Frank-OS-video.zip
Frank released a second uf2 file and this one works!!. I have a zipped video of it running on my little monitor on my bench. I was trying to film and type at the same time , apology for the shaky video. Mouse works , our favorite basic works , and a lot of programs and a couple games. I almost gave up on this as I had built that darn thing 3 times!! It runs pretty good. Almost a new windows....
 
Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9931
Posted: 03:48am 07 Apr 2026
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Looks quite good!  

I sense a cease-and-desist order from Microsoft though, as it "Looks too familiar to Windows 95".
Perhaps, perhaps not, but MS sue at the drop of a hat, if they find ANYTHING that just LOOKS like any of their products.  At least, they used to.  Perhaps that has changed, but I thought that copyright on software was at least 50 years, so it would be the year 2045 before you could legally copy the look and feel of the W95 GUI.

Perhaps the laws have changed - I could be totally wrong, but that's what I remember, and I do remember MS going after anyone who even tried to make a Windoze-looking GUI for Linux!
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!
 
JohnS
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Joined: 18/11/2011
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 4296
Posted: 06:46am 07 Apr 2026
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Did MS do that? W95 was very like a GUI for UNIX (Motif, I think).

Plus prior art was from Xerox PARC.

OTOH MS were (are?) a shameless predatory bullying company.

John
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8737
Posted: 06:53am 07 Apr 2026
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It would probably be simple enough to make it look like, say, KDE Plasma (which, in turn, can look like almost anything!).
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
grumpyoldgeek
Regular Member

Joined: 30/07/2018
Location: United States
Posts: 42
Posted: 06:54am 07 Apr 2026
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Reminds me of a story back in olden times...

It had come to Microsoft's attention that IBM might be infringing on two of
Microsoft's patents.  Microsoft called a meeting with the IBM lawyers and
slid the two patents across the table to them.  The IBM lawyers reached under
the table, lifted up a banker's box of patents and slid them across the table
to the Microsoft attorneys.
 
Mixtel90

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Joined: 05/10/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8737
Posted: 07:14am 07 Apr 2026
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I doubt if MS could (or would bother to) do much about it now. It would hardly be worth waking one of their lawyers up for. There has been no code copied, there has been no port to this CPU of anything MS, the desktop "emulation" is now almost ubiquitous in every OS on every platform. MS's only contribution to the Lisa's OS was overlapping "windows" and X has been doing that for decades - even that is now being replaced by Wayland. On top of all that, how is it likely to affect sales of the Windows desktop? The court would like to know.
Mick

Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini
Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs
 
Amnesie
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Joined: 30/06/2020
Location: Germany
Posts: 747
Posted: 09:43am 07 Apr 2026
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Hi,

this looks interesting! What can be done with MMBASIC in Frank OS? Du you need PSRAM?

Greetings
Daniel
 
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