Awesome Operating System Stuff

This list contains awesome OS related stuff. It contains open source operating sytems and hobby operating systems as one can study their code and learn from them.

Open Source Operating Systems

• ackOS - A simple 64-bit operating system.
• AROS - Research Operating System is a lightweight, efficient, and flexible desktop operating system, designed to help you make the most of your computer. It's an independent, portable and free project, aiming at being compatible with AmigaOS at the API level
• BoneOS- OS for everyone built by everyone
• Cadex OS - a simple operating system kernel originally made by Prof. Douglas Thain at the University of Notre Dame and students
• Clive - A unikernel OS inspired by Plan9 and Nix developed at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos of Madrid
• CollapseOS - Bootstrap post-collapse technology
• dahliaOS- dahliaOS is a modern, secure, lightweight and responsive operating system, combining the best of GNU/Linux and Fuchsia OS.
• eggos - A Go unikernel running on x86 bare metal
• Embox - Configurable operating system kernel designed for resource constrained and embedded systems.
• FreeRTOS, GitHub - IoT operating system for microcontrollers, by Amazon.
• Genode - A FOSS operating system framework consisting of a microkernel abstraction layer and a collection of userspace components
• gopher-os - A proof of concept OS kernel written in Go
• GreenteaOS, Github - A free OS designed to be compatible with Windows executables
• HarveyOS - A distributed operating system
• HelenOS - multikernel multiserver OS
• Interim - Minimalist OS with concepts from Lisp machines and Plan9
• Jehanne, GitHub - OS inspired by Plan9, 9front and Harvey OS
• KnightOS - for z80 calculators
• L4re - Operating system and hypervisor for security/safety-critical and virtualization-enabled applications.
• managarm - Pragmatic microkernel-based OS with fully asynchronous I/O
• Mimiker, GitHub - Simple unix-like operating system for education and research purposes. MIPS microkernel.
• Minoca OS - General purpose OS, written in C
• NodeOS - OS using NodeJS and Linux
• Redox - written in Rust
• Sanos, GitHub - Sanos is a minimalistic 32-bit x86 operating system kernel for network server appliances running on standard PC hardware.
• skiftOS, GitHub - A simple, handmade, operating system with a graphical user interface.
• Sculpt OS - Genode based OS
• soso - Simple unix-like operating system written in Nasm assembly and mostly in C
• SynestiaOS - 32/64 bit operating system written in C for arm platform
• Thor - 64bit operating system mostly written in C++
• Theseus - A modern experimental OS written from scratch in Rust to explore novel OS structure and state management techniques.
• tock, GitHub - A secure embedded operating system for microcontrollers
• Mimosa, GitHub - Research Operating System that runs Scheme on bare-metal

Hobby

• AquilaOS - Operating System that is designed to be POSIX compliant and mostly ISA transparent
• Animal - 32 bit multithreaded operating system (formerly Gramado)
• Cyjon - pure x64 assembly language operating system
• emerald - An operating system kernel written for fun in C
• HalideOS - experimental operating system written entirely from scratch.
• KolibriOS - MenuetOS fork
• LemonOS, GitHub - UNIX-like 64-bit operating system written in C++.
• lyre - x86 kernel and distribution powered by mlibc, GNU userland tools, and other common *nix software.
• Mako - Hobby OS for x86 from scratch, written in C
• MenuetOS - Hobby OS supporting 32 and 64 bit, written in Assembly language
• mOS - A hobby operating system developed from scratch
• MyXomycota - Monolithic kernel in C
• nopeos - Simple OS kernel with BASIC interpreter for x86
• oneOS - x86-32 and ARMv7 kernel with pre-emptive multi-threading, window manager and editor
• Serenity - Graphical Unix-like operating system for x86 computers
• Snowdrop OS - a homebrew operating system from scratch, in assembly language
• Sortix - Hobby OS in C and C++ by Jonas 'Sortie' Termansen
• TempleOS - Religious OS :-)
• ToaruOS - Hobby operating system from scratch
• Týndur - Hobby operating system build by the Lowlevel community. Written in C and Pascal
• Ultron OS - x86 Operating System written in C++, High School Project
• Visopsys - Open Source Hobby OS developed since 1997
• willOS - A minimal 64 bits kernel (Operating System that cannot "operate" a lot of things)
• Windows 95 in Electron - Hobby Windows 95 implementation in Electron
• Xv6 - A teaching operating system developed in the summer of 2006 for MIT's operating systems course
• BareMetal, GitHub - 64 bit operating system written in Assembly for x86-64

Popular Operating Systems

• Darwin XNU - The XNU kernel source code for use in MacOS and iOS
• FreeBSD, Github - Unix-like operating system based on the BSD
• FreeDOS - DOS compatible OS
• Haiku - BeOS inspired OS
• Linux - Linux kernel
• Minix, Github - Unix-like operating system based on a microkernel architecture
• MS-DOS - The original sources of MS-DOS 1.25 and 2.0
• NetBSD, Github - Unix-like operating system based on the BSD
• OpenBSD, Github - Unix-like operating system based on the BSD
• ReactOS, Github - A free Windows-compatible Operating System
• SystemV - AT&T UNIX System V Source Code

Books and Guides

Online books

• How to Make a Computer Operating System - in C++
• Intermezzos - A follow along book to build IntermezzosOS in Rust
• Linux Kernel in a Nutshell - Covers the entire range of kernel tasks, available as chapters or one PDF
• The little book about OS development by Erik Helin and Adam Renberg
• Think OS - A Brief Introduction to Operating Systems by Allen B. Downey
• Operating System Development Series - OS from the ground up in C
• Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces - Easy to read book covering virtualization, concurrency and persistence
• xv6: a simple, Unix-like teaching operating system - Book for Xv6
• Operating Systems: From 0 to 1 - Bootstrap yourself to write an OS from scratch by Do Hoang Tu

Tutorials

• Baking Pi – Operating Systems Development by University of Cambridge
• Build a minimal multi-tasking OS kernel for ARM from scratch by Jim Huang
• Bran's Kernel Development by Brandon Friesen
• How to write a Linux kernel patch and submit it by Greg Kroah-Hartman
• Presentation on how the Linux kernel is developed by Greg Kroah-Hartman
• os-tutorial - How to create an OS from scratch by Carlos Fenollosa
• Roll your own toy UNIX-clone OS by James Molloy
• Writing an OS in Rust by Philipp Oppermann
• Making a RISC-V Operating System using Rust by Stephen Marz
• Operating systems development for Dummies by Leo Whitehead
• Kernels 101 – Let’s write a Kernel by Arjun Sreedharan
• Kernels 201 - Let’s write a Kernel with keyboard and screen support by Arjun Sreedharan
• Writing a Tiny x86 Bootloader by Joe Bergeron
• Writing a Bootloader by Alex Parker
• Learning operating system development using Linux kernel and Raspberry Pi

Website

• Genodians - Stories around the Genode Operating System
• os-dev - Wiki with everything you need to know
• Lowlevel - A wiki about creating an OS from scratch. In German
• POSIX - Standards for maintaining compatibility between operating systems

Papers

• The benefits and costs of writing a POSIX kernel in a high-level language by Cody Cutler, M. Frans Kaashoek, and Robert T. Morris, MIT CSAIL
• Running Scheme On Bare Metal by Samuel Yvon, Marc Feeley, Scheme 2020

Video Tutorials

• Write your own Operating System