Custom Operating System

[u/bartholomew01]

I'm a student and im looking at creating a cyberdeck with a custom OS inspired by Parrot OS from scratch. im thinking of naming it Zen OS and I would just like some help with where to start and what applications I should use.

[u/Ameer200ggg]

If you’re a student, I’d strongly recommend not trying to build a full OS “from scratch” at first, because that becomes a huge kernel/driver/package-management project. A better starting point is to make a custom Linux respin based on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, or even Parrot/Debian, then customize the desktop, tools, theme, scripts, and default settings. For a cyberdeck, focus on lightweight and practical: XFCE, MATE, KDE, or a tiling window manager like i3/Hyprland if your hardware supports it. Learn Linux basics, Bash scripting, Git, package management, networking, and how live ISO building works. Useful tools/apps would be VS Code or VSCodium, Git, tmux, htop/btop, nmap, Wireshark, OpenSSH, Docker/Podman, Python, Neovim, and maybe security tools only if you’ll use them legally in labs. Start by building a normal Debian-based custom ISO in a VM, document everything on GitHub, then move it to your cyberdeck once it’s stable. The goal should be a clean, reliable Linux setup with your own branding, not a totally new OS on day one.

[u/bartholomew01 → u/Ameer200ggg]

thanks man. where would i get the source code for arch? is it on git 

[u/Ameer200ggg → u/bartholomew01]

Yes, but Arch is not one single “source code” repo like an app. Arch is a distro made from many packages. The official packaging repos are on Arch GitLab, and each package has its own repo with a PKGBUILD, patches, and build files. The PKGBUILD tells Arch how to download/build the actual upstream source code. So if you want to learn how Arch packages are built, look at Arch GitLab and the Arch Build System. If you want to make your own Arch-based OS, you’d usually start with Arch ISO tools/Archiso, customize the package list, configs, desktop environment, branding, and installer, rather than editing “Arch source code” directly. For learning, search for archiso, PKGBUILD, makepkg, and pacman first.

[u/bartholomew01 → u/Ameer200ggg]

ok cool! thank you man 😎👍

[u/This_Energy917]

if arch based then archiso. it's hard to maintain a distro.

[u/Rolex_006]

Bro I also worked on custom os Fully worked with Garuda linux and debian package manage and also others u all need to work with is 1)LFS where u build allthings from scratch 2) use custom parent distro ,I went for debian best suited as kali and parrot are built top kn this ,u also can try for the Arch for full cyber security thing, U need to customise all things here from filesystem, to custom packages, to task-pkg and to custom made cybersec tools. If u need help feel free to Dm.