>>20
wait, how does one "address devices" in a Win32.
On the simple as possible mentality:
1. use a prewritten filesystem like EXT or possibly NFS(which is well documented and standardised.) They aren't much more complex than the ones you could write. Not reinventing the wheel means it probably won't end up triangular in shape.
2. There is a fuckload of BIOS functions as interrupts that are meant for everything from plotting pixels, to setting the clock to writing a floppy. Most of them are slow on modern architecture, not used and hence,
not reliably present. That doesn't however mean you cannot use them for a testing platform instead of the IO-ports and DMA.
3. The zen art of loading and running programs will probably mean you cannot run programs built on other systems. The loader Minix uses might still be compatible with Linux programs, which probably is your best shot at running something intresting. That is if you don't want to write a C or assembly compiler to go with that OS.
4. BSD-sockets, implement them. Again standard, well documented, portable.
IO-ports and DMA take me back, God damnit I've grown old!