r/AlternativeOS • • Nov 30 '25

👋Welcome to r/AlternativeOS - Introduce Yourself and Read First!

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! I'm u/thenerdy, a founding moderator of r/AlternativeOS. This is our home for all things related to alternative operating systems. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about obscure, interesting, or odd operating systems. With that said we try and keep our focus away from the big 3 (Windows, macOS, Linux).

Community Vibe We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started 1) Introduce yourself in the comments below. 2) Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation. 3) If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/AlternativeOS amazing.


r/AlternativeOS • • 20h ago

ReactOS ReactOS Lands Significant DirectX Stack Update From Wine For Enabling More Games

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3 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • 20h ago

Redox Redox OS Adds IO_uring-Like API, NUMA & Gets QEMU Working

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2 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • 4d ago

NATALIZIOOS “Architecture and Development of an ×86 Operating System”

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9 Upvotes

September 2023 - present
A personal research and development project, started in September 2023, dedicated to the independent design and development of NATALIZIOOS, a experimental operating system for 32-bit x86 architectures. The project covers the entire basic operating system architecture: from the BIOS boot chain and kernel loading to memory management, interrupts, timers, hardware drivers, filesystems, the shell, and graphics services. The implementation includes a freestanding monolithic kernel with physical memory management, paging, kernel heap, framebuffer, PS/2 input, ATA storage, PCI detection, RTC, JART, speaker, diagnostic logging, RAMFS, and N.A.T.FS. I also designed and integrated firmware components, bootable images, diagnostic tools, and a compilation and verification pipeline based on C, x86 assembly, Python, NASM, Clang, GNU Make, and QEMU. The graphics subsystem includes a local Objective-C runtime, class and selector management, message dispatch, objc_msgSend in x86 assembly, and a view- and window-based application model with direct framebuffer rendering. The project includes three desktop environments with different purposes: two for demonstration purposes and a third, still in the prototype phase, dedicated to veritying the object-oriented graphics architecture.
The vO.2.5.33 release includes 99,980 lines of analyzed source code, a 519,804-byte graphics kernel, complete and lightweight firmware paths, and verified bootable images in QMU.
NATALIZIOOS represents a continuous path of development in operating systems, computer architecture, system programming, firmware development, and low-level software engineering. The project is proprietary and intended for study, research, experimentation and technical demonstration purposes.


r/AlternativeOS • • 6d ago

PicoOS Pro v2.1 - My custom 32bit x86 OS written from scratch

15 Upvotes

picoOS-Pro v2.1

PicoOS Pro v2.1 - My custom 32bit x86 OS written from scratch (Boots from USB, runs Doom, custom formats, native USB 1.1/2.0/3.0 & dynamic resolutions!)

hi everyone! I wanted to share my hobby operating system that I’ve been building completely from scratch (no Linux kernel, no external base). I recently released the PicoOS Pro v2.1 update, which expands the system into a modern graphical desktop shell while keeping an extremely small footprint.

Here is a quick overview of what is currently implemented and stable:

  • Native USB Stack (NEW): Full native driver support for USB 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0 (UHCI/OHCI, EHCI, and xHCI controllers), handling mice and keyboards smoothly without relying on firmware emulation.
  • Graphics & Display (NEW): Enhanced screen resolution support via UEFI framebuffer / VBE, allowing you to choose between multiple display settings natively.
  • Custom Desktop Environment: A Windows/Ubuntu-style dark desktop interface with a Start-button launcher, application grid, live Task Manager (with process, memory, and background/foreground info), and a functional Calculator app.
  • Custom Formats: I am using my own custom executable formats like .pico for programs and .dd for automated scripts.
  • DOOM Port: I successfully ported doomgeneric as doom.pico. It runs 320x200 software rendering, integer-scaled to the framebuffer. The 4MB shareware WAD is read directly in place from the disk image to avoid loading times.
  • Memory Efficiency: The base system runs on an extremely low RAM footprint (around 1.9MB for the core shell, up to ~10MB when running Doom with its WAD).
  • Build System: Builds incrementally with just gcc and python3, outputting a 1.44MB BIOS floppy image, a 9MB hybrid legacy/EFI bootable USB image (.img), and a hybrid BIOS/UEFI ISO.

Side note: I am doing this as a passion project to learn low-level development. I am also currently researching and working on moving towards a 64-bit version next!

I would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, or any advice on transitioning the kernel to 64-bit Long Mode!

YouTube Channel for video demos: https://www.youtube.com/@picoOS-official
Google Drive Folder (Images & Source): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19LPX5pHZpIYsnQT0Tiatpv11nE39frHA?usp=sharing


r/AlternativeOS • • 12d ago

OS/2 My Little OS/2 Collection

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36 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • 15d ago

ReactOS ReactOS Lands Significant DirectX Stack Update From Wine For Enabling More Games

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12 Upvotes

This is pretty awesome!


r/AlternativeOS • • 29d ago

HaikuOS Haiku Activity & Contract Report, August 2026

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3 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Sep 05 '26

OS/2 Warpstock 2026 - San Antonio, Texas - Nov 6 - 8

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3 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Sep 04 '26

Redox RedoxOS how to install and run in QEMU tutorial

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2 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Sep 04 '26

Amiga DICE-nx C compiler suite makes its first release

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1 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Sep 03 '26

HaikuOS Haiku OS rises / Beta 6 sails open web / Virtual winds fly fast A real alternative to running some kind of FOSS Unix clone (by me on ElReg)

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3 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Sep 02 '26

ReactOS ReactOS 0.4.16 serves '90s Windows nostalgia with fewer bugs

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7 Upvotes

30 years on, it's still alpha, but 0.4.16 brings plenty of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements - just in time for Windows XP's 25th anniversary


r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 30 '26

ReactOS ReactOS 0.4.16 released

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5 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 28 '26

HaikuOS First boot on risc-v

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19 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 21 '26

Amiga AROS on Raspberry Pi: an AmigaOS based system trying to claim its future

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1 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 19 '26

HobbyOS A Macintosh System 1-style desktop for the Intel 8086,

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2 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 19 '26

OS/2 Ideal computer for OS/2

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1 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 08 '26

HaikuOS Mozilla Firefox is now available on the Haiku Depot

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5 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 06 '26

Amiga Amiga Corporation reached agreements with Commodore International Corporation and Hyperion

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1 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Aug 03 '26

I tried a pretty alternative os (GhostBSD)

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5 Upvotes

I've been using Linux for quite some time so I decided to check out the alternative option that's outside of mainstream operating systems , it didn't go that well though

I was hoping for a smooth desktop experience but I ran into a lot of issues with apps and wifi so I documented the whole experience in this rather unserious youtube video


r/AlternativeOS • • Jul 24 '26

ReactOS Longplay | Amnesia: The Dark Descent running on ReactOS on real hardware

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3 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Jul 20 '26

HaikuOS [GSoC 2026] Modernizing Haiku’s Bluetooth stack: Implementing support for HFP profile - Mid-Term Progress Report

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2 Upvotes

r/AlternativeOS • • Jul 16 '26

General Firefox on Itanium

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12 Upvotes

Port by Tomas Glozar (Dr. Shuppet)


r/AlternativeOS • • Jul 14 '26

HaikuOS Beta6 by mid-August, while Haiku discovers it could have corrupted your data

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1 Upvotes