An open source operating system without any privacy worries. No ads, no spyware, no telemetry.
A from-scratch microkernel OS written in Rust for x86_64. Boots to a graphical desktop with window manager, networking, filesystem, IPC, and an interactive shell.
| Subsystem | Status |
|---|---|
| Boot to graphical desktop (BIOS/VESA) | ✅ |
| Compositing window manager — desktop, taskbar, draggable windows | ✅ |
| Window server — shared buffers, event queues, window registry | ✅ |
| Preemptive round-robin scheduler | ✅ |
| Paging / per-task address spaces | ✅ |
| Ring-3 user processes (ELF loader, fork/exec/wait/exit) | ✅ |
| Pipes + signals (kill/signal/sigreturn) | ✅ |
| Synchronous IPC + capabilities | ✅ |
| NextFS on-disk filesystem via AHCI/SATA | ✅ |
| TCP/IP networking (smoltcp + e1000) | ✅ |
| In-kernel shell with pipes & redirect | ✅ |
| 4 GUI apps (launcher, file manager, text editor, taskbar) | ✅ |
| 46 syscalls | ✅ |
Sample boot:
PICKLE OS: booting microkernel v0.1.0
[pci] 7 device(s) found
[ahci] SATA controller — 8086:2922
[e1000] link up, IP 10.0.2.15/24
[heartbeat] tick 5
[wm-selftest] => PASS
[net-demo] TCP echo on port 7
PICKLE OS shell — type 'help'
pickleos>
# Prerequisites
rustup component add rust-src llvm-tools-preview
cargo install bootloader_linker --version 0.1.7
sudo apt-get install qemu-system-x86
# Build & boot
make build # compile kernel + userspace
make image # produce bootable bios.img
make run # headless: serial console
make run-display # graphical: QEMU windowpickleos/
├── kernel/src/ # 43 modules — scheduler, IPC, GUI, FS, drivers, net
├── userspace/ # 4 Rust GUI apps + C programs + libpickleos
├── docs/ # Architecture, roadmap, gap analysis
├── scripts/ # QEMU helpers, test scripts
└── Makefile # build, test, run, debug targets
PickleOS is a real working kernel — it boots, runs a GUI, networks, and stores files. It's not production-ready (yet). The gap is measured in engineer-years.
Phase 1 — Critical Stability (current):
✅ ✓ Fix NextFS concurrency race — interrupt-safe lock prevents deadlock when preempted during block I/O
✅ ✓ Fix window Z-order bug — close handler preserves focus; background-window close no longer steals focus
✅ ✓ Fix drag ceiling — windows can't be dragged below taskbar; new windows respect screen bounds
✅ ✓ Kernel panic backtrace — frames printed via RBP chain on any panic
✅ ✓ Lock ordering audit — PIPES vs FD_TABLES now consistent (FD_TABLES → PIPES, never reversed)
4. Build test harness + CI
5. 24h soak test
See docs/PRODUCTION_ROADMAP.md for the full gap analysis.
Why? Because building an OS from scratch is one of the most satisfying things you can do with a computer. And everyone deserves an OS that respects their privacy.
License: MIT OR Apache-2.0