Dev tools · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to The Virtual OS Museum
Relive vintage operating systems right on your desktop
Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.
- 1
🌐 The Internet Computer! Free, Open-Source, and Self-Hostable. - HeyPuter/puter
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 2
- 3
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 →
- 4
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 →
- 5IM
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 →
- 6VI
Experience authentic vintage operating systems in your browser. From Unix v4 (1973) to MS-DOS, explore the foundations of modern computing on emulated hardware.
Feb 2026 · vintageterminals.io · its alternatives →
- 7
A while ago I was looking for information on a obscure and short lived British computer. I found an article[1] in the archives of BYTE magazine[2] - and was captivated immediately by the tech adverts of bygone eras. This led to a long side project to be able to see all 100k pages of BYTE in a single searchable place. [1]: https://byte.tsundoku.io/#198502-381 [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17683184
2025 · byte.tsundoku.io · its alternatives →
- 8
An illustrated history of Mac OS X
2015 · git-tower.com · its alternatives →
- 9
2016 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 10
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 →
- 11
Securely run operating systems on your Mac
2021 · mac.getutm.app · its alternatives →
- 12
- 13VM
2013 · blog.grunseid.com · its alternatives →
- 14
Qubes OS▲58Security-oriented OS for single-user desktop computing
2022 · qubes-os.org · its alternatives →
- 15
A pretty simple Operating System for my High School Project - aswinmohanme/ultronOS
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 16
Linux turns 30, search kernal commit messages
2021 · linux-commits-search.typesense.org · its alternatives →
- 17
2016 · youtube.com · its alternatives →
- 18
Hi HN! Excited to launch machine0, a CLI that makes it easy to create, provision and snapshot persistent NixOS (& Ubuntu) VMs. You can think of machine0 as a modern VPS provider. VMs stay on unless switched-off (with 99.99% uptime), they have static IPs and HTTPS endpoints, 1-60 vCPU, up to 240GB RAM and optionally GPUs. The CLI provides commands to manage lifecycle, snapshots and also provision the VMs using Nix flakes or Ansible playbooks. VMs are priced by the minute of usage. What makes machine0 unique is that it has first class support for NixOS! In a nutshell, NixOS lets you define…
Jun 2026 · machine0.io · its alternatives →
- 19
A minimal RISC-V 32-bit OS written in Zig. Contribute to botirkhaltaev/pico-os development by creating an account on GitHub.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20
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 →
- 21
I've long wanted to harness QEMU/KVM for my desktop virtual machines, but I'm befuddled by virt-manager's lack of support for working NVIDIA 3D acceleration, dogmatic embrace of ugly XML, and the puzzling UI decision of having to click what seems like 15 buttons to attach an ISO to a VM image. When I further learned that NVIDIA's broken 3D acceleration is the fault of libvirt as opposed to QEMU's virtio driver, I had an idea... Behold, vm-curator! A fast and friendly VM management TUI written in Rust. You can create, configure, organize, and manage VMs directly with QEMU. No libvert. No…
Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
hey guys. the other day i was migrating hosting providers and i just needed something not too heavy and convenient to spin up my backups for awhile and realised there is almost nothing out there. kimchi hasn't been updated for years and cockpit is heavy. so here's something i came up with in a couple hours because of a sudden urge, nothing fancy just basic creation with cloud init, lifecycle management and image/storage, but it's modern-ish and it compiles to a 8.4mb binary inclusive of the embedded web UI, CLI and API, and only dep is libvirt.
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 23
2025 · jacquesmattheij.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Also compare
- 3 years and 1M users later, I just open-sourced my "Internet OS" alternatives
- Archive OS alternatives
- My self-written hobby OS is finally running on my vintage IBM ThinkPad alternatives
- A DOS-like hobby OS written in Rust and x86 assembly alternatives
- I made my own OS from scratch because I was bored alternatives
- Vintageterminals.io – a bootable museum of vintage OSes (13 so far) 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 →