Want to contribute to AtheOS? AtheOS isn't developed after the "basar" model like Linux and to some degree the *BSD, HURD, and many other open-source projects but there is still much oportunity to take part of the development.

I don't accept changes or patches to the core OS but I will happily accept patches to existing device drivers, new device drivers, utilities, applications and plugins of most types.

I want to keep the development of the kernel, native FS, GUI, desktop manager, and maybe a few other system components to my self at least at the moment and leave device driver and application development to everybody else. The AtheOS kernel have a very modular design and export a device driver API much in the same way the OS in general export a API to normal applications. This means that unlik for example Linux you don't have to mess around with heaps of internal kernel structures and other things that ought to be private to the kernel. When writing a generic device-driver, network-interface driver, or a file-system you only deal with the mechanism for exporting driver hooks to the kernel and to the various helper functions exported by the kernel. You never have to mess around with internal scheduler lists to do simple things like putting the a thread to sleep.

If you want to develop for AtheOS you should subscribe to the mailing list to be able to syncronise your development with other developers and to keep up with technical issues. If you have an AtheOS related question please try to figure out if it have been answered on the list already and if not ask the list. Don't send private mails to me with questions about the various AtheOS API's. I don't have time to answere each technical questions 100 times in private mails but I do follow the developer mailing list and try to answere those questions there.

If you have written a new device driver or some other kind of software or have made anything else for AtheOS. Or if you have improved one of the existing device drivers and would like to have it included in AtheOS just contact me in a private mail.

Kurt Skauen