Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to My microkernel-based OS built from scratch now has basic Unix commands
This project contains no code from Linux, BSD, Minix, or any other OS. Everything up until this point is written entirely from scratch, including a pure microkernel (that only implements multiprocessor priority scheduling, memory management, and interprocess communication), a work-in-progress implementation of the standard C library, and a variety of servers that provide drivers and other essential OS functionality. At the time of writing this post, the servers provide drivers for the keyboard, NVMe SSDs (that works on real hardware), a Unix-like virtual file system (with a single root…
This is a from-scratch microkernel-based operating system with no code inherited from existing systems. It includes a pure microkernel handling multiprocessor scheduling, memory management, and interprocess… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. My microkernel-based OS built from scratch now has basic Unix commands launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
A multitasking monolithic Kernel based x86 targeting Operating System written in C# from scratch aiming for high-level implementation of drivers in managed environment. - amaneureka/AtomOS
2017 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2
This is my operating system that I've been working for the past 2 years. All of the code is written exclusively by me except from ported software. banan-os has a monolithic kernel targeting x86 (i686) and x86_64 architectures. The project consists of bootloader, kernel and userspace libraries (libc, libGUI, libFont, ...). It also uses my custom C++ standard library partly based on stdc++. Currently I have basic TTY and GUI environment with some of the basic UNIX utilities like cp, ls and stat. I have basic support for USB (keyboard/mouse/storage), disks (NVMe, AHCI), custom…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 3
Micro Kernel / Bootloader for Ben Eater's 6502 Computer - janroesner/sixty5o2
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
I pretty much always have a kernel project going on, and have been that way for decades. Over the past couple of years, that's been Anos, which has gotten further along than any of my previous hobby kernels, supporting IPC, multitasking, SMP (x86-64 only right now) and running on real hardware. LLMs (mostly Claude Code) have been used during development, but I learned early on that it's not _great_ at code at this level, so I've restricted its use to mostly documentation and tests. There's _a little_ AI code in the user space, but I have a strict "no AI code" rule in the kernel itself. I…
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 5
Hi there! I've been on-and-off working on TacOS for a few months, which follows some UNIX-derived concepts (exec/fork, unix-style VFS, etc) and is now able to run a port of Doom, with a fairly small amount of modifications, using my from-scratch libc. The performance is actually decent compared to what I expected. Very interested to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 6
A "living" Linux process with no memory. Contribute to izabera/zeromaps development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
I wanted to see how fast an isolated code sandbox could start if I never had to boot a fresh VM. So instead of launching a new microVM per execution, I boot Firecracker once with Python and numpy already loaded, then snapshot the full VM state. Every execution after that creates a new KVM VM backed by a `MAP_PRIVATE` mapping of the snapshot memory, so Linux gives me copy-on-write pages automatically. That means each sandbox starts from an already-running Python process inside a real VM, runs the code, and exits. These are real KVM VMs, not containers: separate guest kernel, separate guest…
Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
(Very) basic UNIX-like operating system built when I was younger - SamyPesse/devos
2013 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 9
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 →
- 10
Minos2 is a micro-kernel OS. Contribute to minosproject/minos2 development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11
A fast, rootless sandbox and virtual resource runtime for any workload, including untrusted and AI-generated code. Daemonless: a real, kernel-enforced container in ~3.5 ms from an OCI image, out of one static binary - getkern/kern
Aug 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 12
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 →
- 13
A Simple Unix-like operating system. Contribute to ozkl/soso development by creating an account on GitHub.
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14IM
I've wanted to make my own OS since I started programming. Now, 5 years later, I did it (kind of). Sure, it is really basic, has very little functionality, but I made it and I'm proud of that. Oh, and I'm just 16 btw.
2025 · jotalea.com.ar · its alternatives →
- 15
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16
Hello HN! Showing off the first version of Munal OS, an experimental operating system I have been writing in Rust on and off for the past few years. https://github.com/Askannz/munal-os It's an unikernel design that is compiled as a single EFI binary and does not use virtual address spaces for process isolation. Instead, applications are compiled to WASM and run inside of an embedded WASM engine. Other features: * Fully graphical interface in HD resolution with mouse and keyboard support * Desktop shell with window manager and contextual radial menus * PCI and VirtIO…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17MO
2016 · minocacorp.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Minimalist, dependency-free virtual machine sandbox for microcontrollers and other resource-constrained devices. Single C file, no dynamic memory allocations, asynchronous design, pure C99 - ringtailsoftware/uvm32
Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19
"interesting" VM in C. Let's see how this goes. Contribute to tekknolagi/carp development by creating an account on GitHub.
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
This is a personal project I've been working on and off for the past few years. It's a set of tools that have allowed me to prototype quickly small (and increasingly bigger) kernels, and create userspace programs to interact with them. Supports riscv64, amd64 and i386. The intel port has been tested and used on real hardware, from big dual-socket Xeon machines to an old X220. It is all C, I have plan to make rust bindings for the kernel library. But again, they're plans at this stage. Porting to new architectures is relatively simple, a basic port to riscv took me a couple of weeks of…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21
Hey HN! This is a fun/educational project I built to learn OS programming. I started working on it right after graduating high school last year and have been working on it on and off during my first year of university. It features a TCP/IP stack, an HTTP server, a RAM file system, a BIOS bootloader, paging and memory management, and concurrent tasks based on cooperative scheduling, along with a custom library. It's written in a C programming style focused on safety (based on a custom library of core abstractions) that's inspired by the writing of Chris Wellons (nullprogram.com).…
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
Bake, A build system for building, testing and running C & C++ projects - SanderMertens/bake
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
I've been working on this for ~3 months now, with pretty slow progress to be honest. So far I've got an ATA PIO mode hard disk driver, a FAT32 file system, a real time clock driver, and of course the essentials (interrupts, keyboard, pixel graphics). Kernel panics also cause a blue screen of death xD. It uses a bitmap physical memory allocator, and I'm fixing some issues with paging at the moment as a work towards running userspace applications. I'd be interested to see your thoughts on it :D
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Yes, this includes the MBR and partition boot sector. The partition table is modeled as a class hierarchy. Second stage loads a kernel from a FAT32 file. I'm normally a C programmer, but for a work project, I recently revisited C++, a language that I had an on-again-off-again relationship over the years. I did this as a fun training exercise on the side to get familiar with the language again, but obsessed a bit and kind of overshot the target. I thought the result might be of interest to someone.
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- A new hobby OS from “scratch” in C# alternatives
- Banan-OS, an Unix-like operating system written from scratch alternatives
- 1.5kb Microkernel for Ben Eater's 6502 Computer alternatives
- Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V alternatives
- My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM alternatives
- A “living” Linux process with no memory 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 →