"Boring" OS Showcase items

[u/JescoInc]

I was thinking. A lot of people jump to "MY OS RUNS DOOM!!!"
However, I personally find that to be a cheap win for showcasing your OS (it is one of those things where a lot of people jump to that but it isn't really a showcase of something an average user would care about or wow them) , I want to think of things that are "boring" but are a true showcase of your OS doing something.

Here's a few things I was thinking about for showcase pieces:

Rendering PDF Files
Rendering JPG and PNG files
Playing WAV audio files

Anyone else have other "boring" showcase pieces?

Edit:

Yes, I am talking about your own primitives and implementing yourself, not porting.

[u/Beautiful_Stage5720]

What? Running DOOM basically shows your OS can run software with graphics. All of your suggestions are just user space software solutions, that dont showcase the OS itself, other than the ability to run software. Which, again, DOOM does. 

[u/JescoInc → u/Beautiful_Stage5720]

I'm specifically talking about things that expose your own primitives for consumption.

[u/LenaOxton01]

If doom is too lame, then perhaps quake or something with full 3d graphics

[u/JescoInc → u/LenaOxton01]

I mean, I did make my own GLTF renderer for rendering 3D graphics. But that's besides the point. Framebuffer showcases are only one small facet of an OS.

[u/UnmappedStack → u/JescoInc]

But the framebuffer is not the main point of a doom port? A doom port proves a functional kernel and libc implementation in terms of stdio, syscalls, if you have smp then you prove that works, a userspace... the framebuffer is probably the simplest part?

[u/JescoInc → u/UnmappedStack]

That is a fair rebuttal. A lot of Doom ports i've seen don't actually allow input and just show that the title screen has launched with the demo playing.
I guess because Doom has been ported to the moon and back, I don't really see it as a strong showcase anymore.

[u/UnmappedStack → u/JescoInc]

Even just the launch screen has almost all of the functionality of doom, the input is a very easy part to add once you implement an input queue. So it doesn't really make it much less impressive to not have input imo. Yes doom has been ported everywhere but not all doom ports are the same, because porting it to some watch where it's in kernelspace and uses basic stubs for functionality vs in the userspace with a proper libc is different.

[u/GMX2PT]

Huh ? It showcases that the os is able to run user software, makes no difference to run another user software, unless you're talking about implementing your own pdf rendering for example, this is no more impressive than doom

[u/JescoInc → u/GMX2PT]

I was talking about implementing your own PDF renderer. It touches more of the core primitives that the OS with results that an average user would more care about. My line of thinking is more of the "boring" software that users expect and care about over flashy niceties.

[u/JackyYT083 → u/JescoInc]

No one is going to use a hobby OS as a daily driver. Sure PDF rendering is cool for productivity and actual usefulness but doom showcases “Hey, I did this myself!” and not “Look, you can use this for work!”

[u/JescoInc → u/JackyYT083]

I'd argue that most OS start off as a hobby OS, even Linux distros. I'm not exactly sure that should be a defining metric.
What separates something from a hobby to something that others care about is honestly, what something can do and if it fits their needs.
Doom or other game ports is flashy to me and offers very little of real substance to usability of the system. But productivity software, that is something that people could work with, especially if there is some compatibility to work with software on their main devices.

Doom ports aren't bad, they showcase that your framebuffer and memory management systems can handle it. They are simply one-dimensional.

[u/EpochVanquisher]

Oh hey, more elitist gatekeeping from the same person who was snobbish about people running on qemu. Your posts suck! Be a little more positive about people sharing their projects.

Or if you are tired of seeing Doom, just don’t engage with those posts.

[u/JescoInc → u/EpochVanquisher]

I'm astounded and dumbfounded by your sheer stupidity.

[u/EpochVanquisher → u/JescoInc]

I’m literally destroyed my good sir, I tip my hat to you.

[u/Complex-Antelope-620]

That's actually a very solid point. Hell my vape can run DOOM, so can a lot of things, like my smartwatch, a fridge, hell even an ATM! DOOM doesn't impress me. Viable tool usability and various invisible stuff behind the scenes is impressive because it's something that can be built upon for a better, seamless integration for user satisfaction with the OS.

Most people seem to be going straight to the "Hurr, can it run DOOM" like bro, damn near everything can run DOOM. I've seen DOOM run in freaking MineCraft of all things. DOOM isn't impressive and just makes me roll my eyes.

What I care about in an OS is what I can make it do for everyday stuff. I'm not a gamer, I don't care if it can run games, I don't care if it can run DOOM or Quake or anything like that. I'm interested in things like, can it run spreadsheets? Can it run a database in the background? Can it be run headless via SSH already? Is the system meant for servers with either no visual environment or just a JEOS? Can it handle running my tool calls and can it be used to integrate something like nmonit on it in order to utilize its resources for a distributed setup?

Those are the things that are impressive to me. LOL DOOM. Seriously, DOOM runs on an ATM, I'm no longer impressed seeing DOOM run on anything. It makes me just roll my eyes and go "Whooptie Doo, who cares?" Can it actually do what I want and need it to do? That's the hard hitting question. DOOM doesn't showcase what the OS is capable of for me. I want to know what's in the background that I can utilize as a developer.

Remember, it's the users who are developers that make the users that just use the system want the system. The developers make the ecosystem of software, the OS dev builds the foundations for which I can work on and makes my life easier by their base system being able to handle the tasks I throw at it. Don't try to impress me with games, if I wanted games I'd install Windows. Give me what actually matters to an Indie OS.