Visopsys: OS maintained by a single developer since 1997
34 comments
·November 1, 2025dang
Surprisingly only one small previous thread:
Visopsys - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18147201 - Oct 2018 (6 comments)
sen
This is very very cool, and unlike a lot of other "hobby" OSes actually looks usable as a daily driver if your needs are basic (kids, elderly, older/cheaper hardware, etc).
While for nerds computers have become these monstrously powerful things that can do everything under the sun, there's definitely still plenty of people who just want a computer to write down notes, keep a calendar, use the calculator... eg the things home computers were originally made to do.
voidfunc
What youre describing is called iOS on a large iPad. Everyone from 4 year olds to my 77 year old computer illiterate Dad can figure it out.
This doesn't look very usable at all by someone who isn't basically a computer nerd.
Nextgrid
True in theory, but in practice due to our economy being based on growth at all costs, iOS doesn’t really fit the bill anymore.
Nowadays even iOS will randomly change its UI and send you “notifications” or “suggestions” (modern euphemism for “ads”) to subscribe to Apple TV* or iCloud.
deaddodo
I was forced to buy a new iPhone recently (my 16 was stolen), and had iOS 26 foisted on me.
My god, is it bad (for me, I'm sure some like it). The ugly glass UX, the weird floating controls, the always on display, blah blah. It's not innovative at all, it's like they just had to redo everything simply to make it seem "new".
naikrovek
> Nowadays even iOS will randomly change its UI
You and I have very different ideas of “random” I think.
honeybadger1
I agree with you. I see this as a passion project, and I think it's really cool.
Levitating
I couldn't tell you how many operating systems fit those requirements, hobby or not.
rvz
> and unlike a lot of other "hobby" OSes actually looks usable as a daily driver if your needs are basic (kids, elderly, older/cheaper hardware, etc).
While building a non-Linux OS is very impressive, however this is not useful as a daily driver at all.
If the OS doesn't even have basic browsers such as Chrome or Firefox, it can't be remotely used as a daily driver to anyone who isn't a computer enthusiast.
hollerith
>if your needs are basic (kids, elderly, . . .)
Most kids and most elderly need to run a mainstream browser from time to time, and this Visopsys will almost certainly never be able to run a mainstream browser.
jonhermansen
Michael MJD did a video on this recently :)
dustractor
It mentions preemptive multitasking as one of its features. Are there any operating systems that still use cooperative multitasking?
andsoitis
> Are there any operating systems that still use cooperative multitasking?
RISC OS uses cooperative multitasking: http://www.riscos.info/index.php/Preemptive_multitasking
ciroduran
Very impressed by the screenshots in the website. This is no small feat.
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sorbusherra
Amazing! I find it extremely fascinating that somebody is able to create entire operating system. Not a easy task!
grepfru_it
take a look at AtheOS it's successor SyllableOS. created by a single developer, another single developer took it over (syllable) and it shortly became an open source project before it went defunct again. But it made impressive gains in the 3 years of initial development.
i miss those days of everyone and their mom creating an OS for giggles
wowczarek
Don't forget SkyOS. And there's plenty more, with SerenityOS being one of the latest notable examples. Those days never ended. Also ekhem ekhem TempleOS, as single developer as you can get.
pjmlp
CP/M was also created by one person.
portaouflop
Ever heard of TempleOS?
It’s the only OS endorsed by God.
sam0x17
The most impressive thing is being on 0.9 after nearly 30 years
grg0
It's so old, that the 3D icons and window borders will be new again when 1.0 is released. Talk about some long-term vision.
But jokes aside, I always enjoy reading about custom OSes.
ndiddy
65
I always found semantic versioning a little too verbose. Particularly when deciding when to release major versions. OSX was on version 10 for many years but of course released a new "major" version every year.
Semantic versioning is just something everyone does in software development, but is is really that necessary?
khimaros
it took me a while to find. here is the source code: https://sourceforge.net/projects/visopsys/files/visopsys-0.9...
RockieYang
Thanks for digging it out. It is still quite large code base. 274052 lines.
_false
Took me a while to realize it's not a linux distro. Incredible!
iamgopal
By now, especially in linux, there should emerge an OS that is purely scripts to generate OS. Or is it already ?
yjftsjthsd-h
Depending on how you mean it, that exists variously in at least yocto, gentoo, or ALFS. Although I should point out this (visopsys) isn't Linux distro
Speaking of these, does anyone recall the AtheneOS distribution/OS. There’s an archive.org copy of the desktop environment version of it, but I recall there was a really fast version with only 2D graphics and it was a full distribution.
Can anyone validate whether this is real? I tried contacting the guy who wrote it but the Companies House address for his company (Rocklyte) bounced the letter.