This may be the most frequently asked question: What is JOS? It is difficult to figure out sometimes because there are many valid opinions about what it might be. Our members do not always agree on implementation details, and don't have to. Here is the process which should be used to determine what it is and is not.
Review our project history. It contains a lot of information about JOS and its potential.
From the beginning, it has been a free and open operating system based on Java(tm) technologies from Sun Microsystems.
"[JOS is a] free and open Java(tm) based operating system. The end product will be an operating system that will run 100% Java(tm) applications on a Intel 386/486 class machine with 8MB memory and a 60 MB hard drive. JOS intends to support built-in networking, remote administration, multi-user support, and other world class operating system features. The stretch goal includes multiple VM support to allow seamless integration of future operating system ideals such as distributed computing and orthogonal persistence. Members of the design team are also looking into CORBA support for inter-vm and distributed communication for foreign system compatibility."