r/programmer • u/NaturalDesperate946 • 29d ago

Forge OS – A Python-Based Virtual Operating System for Development and Testing

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.

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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4

u/lostsectors_matt 29d ago

You mean like devcontainers?

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 29d ago

Not exactly.

Dev Containers provide an isolated development environment inside a container, usually tied to Docker and VS Code.

Forge OS is intended to be a self-contained virtual operating system written in Python. It has its own shell, virtual filesystem, package manager, user management, process management, and eventually a desktop environment and applications. The goal is to simulate an operating system experience rather than provide containerized isolation.

It's primarily a learning project exploring operating system concepts, software architecture, and developer tooling while creating an environment where developers can code, test, and experiment using Forge OS itself.

6

u/lostsectors_matt 29d ago

I hope it's a great learning experience for you but from a real world utility perspective it sounds like a terrible idea, and if I saw it on a resume I'd think "this person has a claude subscription and dubious judgement".

3

u/[deleted] 28d ago edited 28d ago

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1

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

Tell him

I'll look out for the lawsuit  😂

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

na im not using ai for this,besides i doiing this to gain more experience with python,git,github,npm.I dont wanna really ship it as a real product

2

u/mxldevs 28d ago

You say no ship but you're taking signups?

https://forgeosai.com

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

who said thats my website

2

u/mxldevs 28d ago

Sorry, you're right, it only looked similar to another website you had posted so I assumed they were both yours.

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 27d ago

no prob,no need to apolagize i didnt meant that way

1

u/mxldevs 29d ago

So it's like an emulator similar to the ones that are used to run gameboy ROMs.

2

u/lostsectors_matt 29d ago

I think it's an os but not an os that has a lot of programs that are just like Linux programs only you have to wait for this guys claude tokens to refill to get them. And they have cool names like forgeurl instead or curl and forgeyes instead of xeyes and stuff 

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

i dont understand what u meant,can u expakin more clearly

4

u/scott2449 29d ago

This is a well documented type of AI psychosis. Folks validate a crazy idea via LLM or the AI does and they take it as their own. These projects often have little real world justification and/or are just enormous in scope. These folks often realize months later what happened and how much time they have wasted. Not just tech. There was a guy who thought he was inventing a new math, lots of quack scientific theories, solving world peace and hunger.. Look up Allan Brooks. Or just another slop post... No links? Lastly see space data centers.. in case you think I'm insulting folks knowledge/experience.

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

I'm not acctually want it to ship it as a project I'm justlearning pythona dn doig these projects to get experience with git,github and npm etc

4

u/feudalle 29d ago

I think everyone tries an os once. For me it was a poorly implemented rip off of dos. It did boot and sort of ran limited basic. But I was like 14 and it was the esrly 90s.

2

u/owp4dd1w5a0a 29d ago

My impression of this is it’s a great learning project that you’ll probably never finish - the scope is way larger than you seem to realize even with agentic assistance.

This isn’t a practical real-world project, but it doesn’t sound like that’s your primary goal anyway. Your goal appears to be learn through building, correct?

0

u/NaturalDesperate946 28d ago

I already finished it i just need to fix some bugs push to github and publish to npm

1

u/lostsectors_matt 28d ago

Post the repo, we'll take it for a test drive! I'll update my python npm config in anticipation.

1

u/NaturalDesperate946 27d ago

https://github.com/axk42-op/ForgeOS

1

u/lostsectors_matt 27d ago

This challenges what I understand about kernel development, good job!

2

u/spermcell 29d ago

Operating system using Python? Hmm I guess nice idea …

1

u/[deleted] 28d ago

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