MenuetOS is a name you might have NOT heard before, if not let me introduce to this little beauty. The open-source, GUI capable operating-system for x86 architecture is written entirely in assembly language which makes it highly efficient and allows it to fit on a floppy-disk. The operating-system just went to version 1.0 after 13 years of development, despite being tiny in size it supports full range of services needed to be a complete OS like support for USB devices like storage, printers, webcams and digital TV tuners and support for gaming, multimedia and basic networking. The MenuetOS supports multitasking with multiprocessor and multithreading, skinnable GUI upto 1920x1080 (16 million colors), capability to run games like Doom, Quake and utilities like DosBox and many more unimaginable features for an OS sizing less then 1.4 MB in size.

Features :

- Pre-emptive multitasking with 1000hz scheduler, multithreading, multiprocessor, ring-3 protection
- Responsive GUI with resolutions up to 1920x1080, 16 million colours
- Free-form, transparent and skinnable application windows, drag'n drop
- SMP multiprocessor support with currently up to 8 cpus
- IDE: Editor/Assembler for applications
- USB 2.0 HiSpeed Classes: Storage, Printer, Webcam Video and TV/Radio support
- USB 1.1 Keyboard and Mouse support
- TCP/IP stack with Loopback & Ethernet drivers
- Email/ftp/http/chess clients and ftp/mp3/http servers
- Hard real-time data fetch
- Fits on a single floppy, boots also from CD and USB drives

Menuet also supports application development using 32/64 bit x86 assembly programming for smaller, faster and less resource hungry applications. Menuet isn't based on any other operating-system nor has it roots within UNIX or the POSIX standards. To try Menuet one can simply download the ~ 815 KB image writer and make a floppy/USB/CD disk to test the OS from Windows as shown below. The Menuet CD comes with more bundled Menuet64 and Menuet32 applications like Doom, Quake, Dosbox, Scumm etc.

I can't stop to imagine the fun if this can get ported to ARM architecture paving way for awesome embedded applications.