Is there any legal problems for design an operating system?

Question

One of my big goals is to design an operating system. If I write one with GUI elements (windows, lists, buttons, etc.) and make it for Commercial use, will Microsoft or Apple sue me, just like what happened in GUI war between the two of them?

Answer 1

I think still you have a sufficient distance between Microsoft/Linux and you. So you don't want to worry this much soon

Answer 2

No, as long as you don't use any of their code, you will be perfectly fine legally. If you need some help, I recommend the OSdev forums.

Answer 3

It was mostly problems with patents, and as the basic patents were published back in the 80s, most legal problems should have disappeared by now.

But You would have to be really big to even be noticed by players like Microsoft or Apple...

Answer 4

In short, the concept of an operating system (and the graphical interface to it) is not the intellectual property of any company.

Answer 5

IANAL

Suing you costs money and can give the public opinion about you a dent. They don't do it unless there is a good business reason to do. Possible reasons are (incomplete list):

• Your OS is such a huge success that you're making an impression on their revenue
• You use their code
• You write a clone
• You use their trademarks and copyrights (like writing an OS which is called "Windows100")

[EDIT] There are a couple of things in your favor, though:

1. You can implement a compatible OS (things like Wine, VirtualBox, etc) because the law allows you to write software which can interface with anything anyone else wrote. You are even allowed to decompile the other software if there is no other way to get at the information you need. You must not tell anyone what you're learned but you can write code that can talk to the other software based on your knowledge. You can even write a book about it but you must not talk about details; just about the interface (like data structures but not internal algorithms).
2. You can use trademarks and other copyrighted names in your code as long as you need this for the API. For example, on the Amiga, a lot of programs checked for the string "Workbench". This was a trademark but since it's part of the interface, it was OK to use it.
3. Usually, a big company will talk to you before they send their lawyers. It's just less expensive, all things considered.

PS: I'm the guy who started the AROS project which is a clean room implementation of the AmigaOS, so I do have some experience in the area :-)

Answer 6

A new OS - you go for it - the world always needs more inovation, and even if it isn't the next Windows/Linux, you may just come up with something great along the way. Good luck!

You may fall foul of the hundreds (thousands?) of patents they have filed. But you probably wouldn't find out until you have some success and 'they' are looking for a way to stop you.