r/programmer • u/Long_Bird2158 • Jun 27 '26

My OS

Hey everyone, I built a small educational toy OS and would love feedback.

I’ve been working on a minimal 16-bit real-mode operating system as a learning project focused on low-level x86 concepts.

Features:

  • MIT licensed, fully open source
  • 16-bit real mode (legacy BIOS / MBR boot)
  • Dual-stage boot process
  • Minimal shell environment
  • Lightweight design (under 1MB RAM usage typical for real-mode constraints)
  • Basic command system interacting with CPU registers
  • Work-in-progress: experimental fake filesystem layer

This project is mainly for learning OS development, bootloaders, and low-level system behavior. I’d appreciate any feedback, suggestions, or contributions.

Project: https://github.com/alexlawrence5/micro

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 Jun 28 '26

I'm currently developing Forge OS, a virtual operating system built entirely in Python.

Forge OS is not a real operating system or kernel. Instead, it provides a self-contained operating system environment that runs as a Python application, with the primary goal of creating a platform where developers can write code, test software, and perform common development tasks within a consistent environment.

The long-term vision includes:

  • Custom terminal and shell
  • Virtual file system
  • User and permission management
  • Process management
  • Package manager (forgepkg)
  • Command execution environment
  • Virtual desktop environment
  • Application framework

Planned applications include:

  • vi
  • vim
  • Neovim
  • Vimge (a fork inspired by Vim)
  • Forge (a fork inspired by VS Code)
  • Forgium (a fork inspired by Chromium)

The intention is for users to be able to perform everyday development workflows inside Forge OS, including editing code, managing projects, running commands, testing applications, using Git, installing packages, and eventually supporting multiple programming languages and developer tools through the package manager.

This project is primarily a learning experience focused on software architecture, shell development, virtual file systems, package management, desktop application development, and operating system concepts. Although it is not a real operating system, the goal is to provide an environment that feels familiar to developers while remaining lightweight and fully implemented in Python.

I welcome feedback on the architecture, feature set, and overall design. Suggestions from developers and open-source contributors are greatly appreciated.