In our lifetimes, we've all used a variety of operating systems. Some were good, while others were not. But can you say you've ever utilized a God-designed operating system? I'd want to introduce you to Shrine today.

What is Shrine?

   
Neither Windows nor Linux are supported!

You're probably thinking what the hell is going on after reading that. All of it began with a man called Terry Davis. Before we go any further, I should point out that Terry had schizophrenia throughout his life and frequently failed to take his medicine. As a result, he said or did things that were not exactly socially acceptable throughout his life.

Anyway, let's go back to the plot. Terry published a basic operating system in the early 2000s. It has gone by various names throughout the years, including J Operating System, LoseThos, and SparrowOS. TempleOS was the name he chose in the end. Because this operating system will be God's temple, he picked that name. As a result. Terry was given the following operating system specs by God:

  • It would feature visuals with a resolution of 640x480 pixels and 16 colors.
  • For sound, it would employ "a single-voice 8-bit signed MIDI-like sample."
  • It would be modeled after the Commodore 64, which was described as "a non-networked, basic machine where programming was the objective, not simply a means to an end."
  • Only one file system (dubbed "Red Sea") would be supported.
  • To make it "simple to understand the whole thing," it would be limited to 100,000 lines of code.
  • “Ring-0-only. Everything, including user programs, operates in kernel mode.”
  • The typeface would be confined to "one fixed-width font of 88 characters."

“Full access to everything” would be granted to the user. All memory, I/O ports, instructions, and other such items must always be accessible. All functions, variables, and members of the class will be available.”
It would only be compatible with 64-bit PCs.
Terry created this operating system in HolyC, a programming language he created. It's a "modified version of C++ ("more than C, less than C++")," according to TechRepublic.

Terry announced the completion of TempleOS on his website in 2013. Terry was tragically killed by a train a couple years later in August of 2018. He was on the streets at the time. Many people have followed Terry's work on the operating system throughout the years. The ability to create an operating system in such a compact size astounded most people.

You're probably wondering what TempleOS has to do with Shrine at this point. Shrine is “A TempleOS distribution for heretics,” according to its GitHub website. Shrine was built by GitHub user minexew to add functionality to TempleOS that Terry had overlooked. These characteristics include:

Compatibility with TempleOS applications is 99 percent.
TCP/IP stack and internet access are included out of the box, as well as Lambda Shell, which feels a little like a classic Unix command interpreter.

A package downloader is included.

Minexew intends to introduce more features in the future, but hasn't specified what those features would be. He intends to create a complete TempleOS environment for Linux.

Experience


It's quite simple to virtualize Shrine. All you have to do now is install your preferred virtualization program. (VirtualBox is what I use.) Make sure your Shrine virtual machine is 64-bit and has at least 512 MB of RAM when you build it.


You'll be prompted if you wish to install to your (virtual) hard drive when you first boot into Shrine. After that is completed (or not, depending on your preference), you will be given a tour of the operating system. You may go exploring from there.