initial migration to test org-mode

1 files changed, 116 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/blog/serenity-os/index.org b/blog/serenity-os/index.org
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ccb9049
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/serenity-os/index.org
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+#+title: Serenity OS: Testing Out a Unique System
+#+date: 2022-09-17
+#+description: A quick look at the Serenity operating system.
+#+filetags: :dev:
+
+* Overview
+[[https://serenityos.org][SerenityOS]] is a unique operating system (OS)
+that I have seen pop up in my news feed a few times over the last few
+years, but I have never had time to test it out until now.
+
+Testing out this system brought back fond memories of yellowed,
+modem-screeching, 100-pound computers that brought so many fond memories
+to my youth.
+
+Per their website:
+
+#+begin_quote
+A graphical Unix-like operating system for desktop computers!
+
+SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces with a custom
+Unix-like core. It flatters with sincerity by stealing beautiful ideas
+from various other systems.
+
+Roughly speaking, the goal is a marriage between the aesthetic of
+late-1990s productivity software and the power-user accessibility of
+late-2000s *nix.
+
+This is a system by us, for us, based on the things we like.
+
+#+end_quote
+
+* Building
+Your first question may be "Where's the iso?" and the answer is... there
+are none. SerenityOS does not provide pre-built images for testing. You
+must build the images yourself. This seems intentionally to limit
+participation to only those who are truly interested enough to learn how
+to build the OS.
+
+** Clone
+In order to get started, you'll need to clone the source repository:
+
+#+begin_src sh
+git clone https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity && cd serenity
+#+end_src
+
+** Build
+Note that I followed the
+[[https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/blob/master/Documentation/BuildInstructions.md][Build
+Instructions]] in the SerenityOS repository as of commit
+=660d2b53b1206e868d5470eee80b5e62d7e30da7=. Things may have changed
+since my installation, and you should double-check the instructions
+first.
+
+Regardless, I want to repeat my steps here to illustrate any errors or
+differing commands I needed to run in order to build and run SerenityOS.
+
+Since I am running Fedora, I needed to install these packages in order
+to build the OS images:
+
+#+begin_src sh
+sudo dnf install texinfo binutils-devel curl cmake mpfr-devel libmpc-devel gmp-devel e2fsprogs ninja-build patch ccache rsync @"C Development Tools and Libraries" @Virtualization
+#+end_src
+
+Next, make sure you're inside the =serenity= directory created earlier
+during the git cloning process and process to build the toolchain:
+
+#+begin_src sh
+Meta/serenity.sh rebuild-toolchain
+#+end_src
+
+Once the toolchain is built, you can Build and run the OS!
+
+#+begin_src sh
+Meta/serenity.sh run
+#+end_src
+
+After this process is completed, the image should run automatically and
+launch.
+
+* Issues
+I played around in SerenityOS for an hour or two in order to see what I
+could do and had a lot of fun with it. The only issue I ran into was a
+lack of working internet. I didn't try very hard, but I could tell that
+the main network link wasn't connecting to my Fedora host properly.
+
+* Screenshots
+The initial launch of the image displays the SerenityOS desktop, with a
+simple terminal already launched:
+
+#+caption: SerenityOS Terminal
+[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220917-serenityos/initial_launch.png]]
+
+Here you can see the Fire application (literally just shows fire
+burning), a browser with the local Serenity Browser page loaded, and a
+text editor.
+
+#+caption: SerenityOS Fire
+[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220917-serenityos/basic_apps.png]]
+
+I also poked around the system utilities and found most tools you'd
+expect to find within a standard desktop.
+
+#+caption: SerenityOS System Monitor
+[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220917-serenityos/system_monitor.png]]
+
+Lastly, I noted that the default desktop contains numerous pre-defined
+themes to choose from. This is a small piece, but it's actually
+wonderful to see desktop developers consider theming directly out of the
+box rather than using an addon-based mentality.
+
+#+caption: SerenityOS Themes
+[[https://img.cleberg.net/blog/20220917-serenityos/themes.png]]
+
+I didn't take a screenshot of the other pre-installed games, but I did
+spend nearly 30 minutes playing Solitaire before remembering that I was
+supposed to be writing a post about the OS.