nowfound

Life & fun · August 8, 2024

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 – A 64 bit OS kernel from scratch launched on August 8, 2024 with 45 votes, #796 of 5,471 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.

Visit github.com ↗Alternativestop 15% of August 2024

In plain words

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 input, and pixel graphics. The kernel uses a bitmap memory allocator and implements paging to support userspace applications. Currently in active development, SpecOS is available as open source on GitHub for developers interested in OS-level programming and kernel architecture.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

An x86_64 OS kernel from scratch. Contribute to UnmappedStack/SpecOS development by creating an account on GitHub.

Does a similar job

all alternatives →
  • My from-scratch OS kernel that runs DOOM2025 · github.com · ▲320

    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!

  • FrameOS – operating system for single function smart frames2024 · frameos.net · ▲474

    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.

  • MyraOS – My 32-bit operating system in C and ASM (Hack Club project)Oct 2025 · github.com · ▲247

    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…

  • Banan-OS, an Unix-like operating system written from scratch2024 · github.com · ▲333

    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…

  • A DOS-like hobby OS written in Rust and x86 assembly2025 · github.com · ▲207

    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

  • GentleOS – A pair of hobby OSes for vintage 32-bit and 16-bit PCsJun 2026 · github.com · ▲132

    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…

More life & fun this month

the category →

Source: Show HN post ↗

Launched alongside, August 2024

the whole month →
  • Wordware▲9,848

    Your tool for building AI agents with natural language

    AI · 2024 · wordware.ai

  • If YouTube had actual channels▲2,741

    If Youtube had actual channels.

    Life & fun · 2024 · ytch.xyz

  • Me.bot▲1,627

    The inspiring companion for your life

    AI · 2024 · me.bot

  • Upmetrics AI▲1,197

    Business plan & financial forecast using AI

    Work · 2024 · upmetrics.co

  • Jupitrr AI▲1,195

    Jupitrr AI turns raw talking videos into scroll-stopping content for coaches and consultants. Research, script, record, edit, and publish in one app.

    AI · 2024 · jupitrr.com

  • InstantDB – A Modern Firebase▲1,145

    Hey there HN! We’re Joe and Stopa, and today we’re open sourcing InstantDB, a client-side database that makes it easy to build real-time and collaborative apps like Notion and Figma. Building modern apps these days involves a lot of schleps. For a basic CRUD app you need to spin up servers, wire up endpoints, integrate auth, add permissions, and then marshal data from the backend to the frontend and back again. If you want to deliver a buttery smooth user experience, you’ll need to add optimistic updates and rollbacks. We do these steps over and over for every feature we build, which can…

    Dev tools · 2024 · github.com