Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to My 486 Server
Hello. I wrote a multitasking 16-bit real mode "operating system" that works on every IBM PC compatible computer, and a TCP/IP stack for it. Then I wrote an HTTP server for it.
My 486 Server is a multitasking 16-bit real mode operating system designed to run on IBM PC compatible computers. The creator developed a TCP/IP stack and HTTP server for the system. It enables retro hardware to… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My 486 Server launched in 2022; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
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Finally got my hobby OS up and running on real hardware. I love the old IBM thinkpads, so thought it was the perfect machine to get it working on. Been working on it for quite some time now, but this has been a big milestone!
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2

Hi HN, To truly understand how operating systems and network protocols work, I decided to combine two classic learning tools: the xv6 teaching OS and a from-scratch TCP/IP stack. I'm excited to share the result: my own from-scratch TCP/IP networking stack running directly inside the xv6-riscv (https://github.com/pandax381/xv6-riscv-net) kernel. The project uses a modern virtio-net driver, allowing it to run seamlessly in QEMU and communicate with the host machine. Key features: - From-Scratch Stack: The core is powered by microps…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 3

https://lisagui.com/info.html This is a web OS I wrote in vanilla JS that looks like the Apple Lisa Office System (1983-85), with other contemporaneous influences and additional improvements and features. It's currently in alpha and isn't remotely bug free. I had been holding off on posting this here until it was somewhat presentable and useful. Please note; the Lisa conforms more literally to the desktop metaphor than most modern GUIs - some of the important differences are mentioned in the readme. This is a complete recreation of the UI in JS; it all renders to a single…
2025 · alpha.lisagui.com · its alternatives →
- 4

Articles in this series Part I. Iterative ServersPart II. Forking ServersPart III. Pre-forking ServersPart IV. Threaded ServersPart V. Pre-threaded ServersPart VI: poll-based serverPart VII: epoll-…
2019 · unixism.net · its alternatives →
- 5

Access files on the decentralized, unblockable torrent swarm and visit links using Handshake domains. Decentralized internet is here. - publiusfederalist/federalist
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6MW
2022 · serentty.com · its alternatives →
- 7

This is ymawky, a static file web server for MacOS written entirely in ARM64 assembly. It supports GET, PUT, DELETE, HEAD, and OPTIONS requests, and supports Range: bytes=X-Y headers (which allows scrubbing for video streaming). It decodes percent-encoded URLs, strictly enforces docroot, serves custom error pages for any HTTP error response, supports directory listing, and has (some) mitigations against slowloris-like attacks. I’ve also written a more detailed writeup here: https://imtomt.github.io/ymawky/
May 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
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To try it out, simply build the project yourself from source, or use attached bootable ISO image of the system (in Releases on Github) and run it in QEMU. https://blog.vxn.dev/rou2exos-rusted-edition
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9

A little web server written in C for Linux. Supports: CGI, Reverse Proxy. Single threaded using I/O multiplexing (select).
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10

Custom web server for my blog. Contribute to cozis/BlogTech development by creating an account on GitHub.
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11IR
Happy Holidays! Today I am delighted to announce the first release of H2O, version 0.9.0; this is a christmas gift from me. github.com/h...
2014 · blog.kazuhooku.com · its alternatives →
- 12SA
Hello all :) I made this BBS for fun and thought you all would enjoy it. It's not perfect, but it's been a fun exercise! see it: https://asciinema.org/a/Emg6SWrXMV6cehfQxrw1GRu75 try it: ssh -p 2223 shhhbb.com host it: https://github.com/donuts-are-good/shhhbb/releases/latest why? Every year I challenge myself in some new way, this year it is to push one project per week. You might recognize my static site generator [0] or my releaser for go [1] from previous posts as one of these weekly projects. If you want to join me in doing this, it's…
2023 · donuts-are-good.github.io · its alternatives →
- 13

Hello HN, I've been working on a simple OS for tinkering and running bare metal apps on vintage PCs. Since I couldn't quite decide whether to target pure 16-bit, or slightly more capable 32-bit machines, I ended up with two separate versions: - GentleOS/32 (https://github.com/luke8086/gentleos32) works on i386+, requires 4MB of RAM and VGA display supporting 640x480x16 mode or any 256-color VESA mode. - GentleOS/16 (https://github.com/luke8086/gentleos) works on 80186+, requires less than 192KB of RAM and a CGA display supporting 320x200x4…
Jun 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14

This post is from a protected account.
2021 · twitter.com · its alternatives →
- 15

A purely bash web server, no socat, netcat, etc... - GitHub - dzove855/Bash-web-server: A purely bash web server, no socat, netcat, etc...
2022 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16

First Release is Here! I'm excited to announce the first release of i486SX_soft_FPU — a software FPU emulator for the classic Intel 486SX CPU, running on NetBSD 10! This project brings floating-point support back to life for 486SX machines, even though modern NetBSD versions no longer natively support processors without a hardware FPU. If you're into retrocomputing, operating system hacking, or just love old-school hardware, check it out! Project page: https://github.com/mezantrop/i486SX_soft_FPU Contributions, feedback, and testing are all very welcome! Let's keep these…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17

- 18

High-performance serverless functions for Rust & WebAssembly
2020 · secondstate.io · its alternatives →
- 19

Use BIOS ram hacks to make a SSH server out of any INT 10 13h app (MS-DOS is one of those) - benjojo/dos_ssh
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20

Hi HN, I have been messing around with WebRTC for a few years now but when it comes to the TURN server I never quite got to my gold standard of free, self-hosted and open source. I decided to give it a go using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's free tier, meaning that my total spend got down to domain name hosting. I know plenty of people have been burnt by Oracle in the past, but I have had servers running on the free tier for 5 years now without so much as a hiccup. Regardless, the concepts will be the same using any cloud based server. This is the first time I've written up an end-to-end…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21

A minimalist HTTP server for Linux, written in x86_64 assembly - jcalvinowens/asmhttpd
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22

A self-hostable Wasm sandbox for JavaScript workers.
Jun 2026 · kyushu.dev · its alternatives →
- 23OA
2020 · ouroboros.rocks · its alternatives →
- 24

Hello! I got quite some feedback on a web server I'm building, so I'm rewriting the server to be faster and easier to use. I (and maybe some other contributors?) have optimized the web server performance, especially for static file serving and reverse proxying (the last use case I optimized for very recently). I also picked a different configuration format and specification, what I believe is easier to write. Automatic TLS is also enabled by default out of the box, you don't need to even enable it manually, like it was in the original server I was building. Yesterday, I released the first…
2025 · ferron.sh · its alternatives →
Also compare
- My self-written hobby OS is finally running on my vintage IBM ThinkPad alternatives
- I integrated my from-scratch TCP/IP stack into the xv6-riscv OS alternatives
- I wrote a "web OS" based on the Apple Lisa's UI, with 1-bit graphics alternatives
- ZeroHTTPd: A web server to teach Linux performance, with benchmarks alternatives
- Decentralized, Mutable, Serverless Torrent Swarm Websites alternatives
- My website, hosted on a 386 25 MHz, 4 MiB of RAM, 38400 baud internet alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →