Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to SpecOS – A 64 bit OS kernel from scratch
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
SpecOS is a 64-bit operating system kernel built from scratch over three months. It includes an ATA hard disk driver, FAT32 file system, real-time clock driver, and core features like interrupt handling, keyboard… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. SpecOS – A 64 bit OS kernel from scratch launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
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 →
- 2
The operating system for smart frames. Runs on a Raspberry Pi or ESP32, renders on e-ink, HDMI and LCD displays. Standalone, self-hosted, or managed from FrameOS Cloud - everything renders on the device.
2024 · frameos.net · its alternatives →
- 3
Hi HN, I’m Dvir, a young developer. Last year, I got rejected after a job interview because I lacked some CPU knowledge. After that, I decided to deepen my understanding in the low level world and learn how things work under the hood. I decided to try and create an OS in C and ASM as a way to broaden my knowledge in this area. This took me on the most interesting ride, where I’ve learned about OS theory and low level programming on a whole new level. I’ve spent hours upon hours, blood and tears, reading different OS theory blogs, learning low level concepts, debugging, testing and working on…
Oct 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
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 →
- 5
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 →
- 6
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 →
- 7
An application innovation platform delivering a comprehensive experience with tools to empower organizations to modernize and build new applications, accelerate AI adoption, and fuel growth.
2013 · coreos.com · its alternatives →
- 8
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 →
- 9
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…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
TempleOS is an experimental OS designed to be simple and self-hosted with a JIT compiler. I was mesmerized by it but didn't like the hassle of using virtual machines to boot it up and move files around from the virtual drive. My project lets you run TempleOS as an app of some sort instead of using a virtual machine to run it - this brings a lot of benefits like speed, seamless filesystem integration (virtual machine development with stock TempleOS is really a pain.), command-line mode where you can code in HolyC on the command line instead of TempleOS' GUI. Its user-space nature lets it do…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 11
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 →
- 12
2016 · youtube.com · its alternatives →
- 13
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 14MO
2016 · minocacorp.com · its alternatives →
- 15
A "living" Linux process with no memory. Contribute to izabera/zeromaps development by creating an account on GitHub.
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16KA
2016 · knightos.org · its alternatives →
- 17
Hey HN, I’m Surya and I’m excited to show you WarpBuild! WarpBuild provides fast, secure `x86-64` and `arm64` Github actions runners. This speeds up your workloads by 30%, at half the cost, and takes ~2mins to get started. We’ve been seeing pretty good results since we opened up signups a week ago and I’ve shared some numbers publicly here [1]. Currently, we support linux runners for Github organizations (not personal accounts) and MacOS support is coming soon (~Jan). The way the runners work is deceptively simple: Runners are assigned to hardware that is ideal for build workloads with fast…
2023 · warpbuild.com · its alternatives →
- 18
VibeOS is a retro operating system that boots on qemu and Pi Zero 2W. I built this with Claude code in about 4 weeks.
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 19
Micro Kernel / Bootloader for Ben Eater's 6502 Computer - janroesner/sixty5o2
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
VEKOS(Verified Experimental Kernel OS) is a Rust-based experimental kernel that focuses on runtime verification and security. Every filesystem operation and memory allocation generates cryptographic proofs that can be verified in real-time, ensuring system integrity. Think of it like a blockchain for OS operations rather than just storage verification. Key features: - Merkle tree-backed filesystem with operation verification - Memory manager with CoW and proof generation - Buddy allocator with zone-based memory management - Shell with VT100 support - Verified boot sequence with stage…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 21
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
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 →
- 23
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 →
- 24
Contribute to cmc-labo/tinyos-rtos development by creating an account on GitHub.
Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
Also compare
- My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM alternatives
- FrameOS – operating system for single function smart frames alternatives
- MyraOS – My 32-bit operating system in C and ASM (Hack Club project) alternatives
- Banan-OS, an Unix-like operating system written from scratch alternatives
- A DOS-like hobby OS written in Rust and x86 assembly alternatives
- GentleOS – A pair of hobby OSes for vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCs 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 →