While most of the development and testing of MOSA is done using virtualization software, MOSA does indeed boot on real hardware too. At the moment we support booting MOSA from either a CD or USB key. We created a short one minute video showing MOSA being written to a USB Drive and the same PC booted with it: 

Here are the detailed instructions for writing MOSA to a USB Drive:

1. Download the dd utility for windows from http://www.chrysocome.net/dd.

2. Extract the dd.exe executable to the mosa\trunk\Setup\Boot\build directory.

3. Open a command prompt window and change directory to the build directory.

4. Connect the USB key you wish to ERASE and install MOSA onto. (WARNING: Data on the USB drive will be lost!)

5. Determine the device path for the USB key.

Type "dd --list" to display a list all the block devices on your system. Find the one for the USB Key you just connected. Be careful, if you select or mistype the wrong device, you can corrupt your hard drive or other storage devices. Unless you understand these steps completely, do not proceed.

6.Type "dd of=\\?\Device\HarddiskX\PartitionX if=bootimage.img bs=512 --progress" and substitute the of= parameter with the device path found in the previous step.

7. Wait until all the blocks are written to the USB key before disconnecting it.

8. Now boot a PC or laptop with the USB Key connected!