Advanced Projects
This is the list of advanced and more successful alternative operating systems, that somewhat grow more than being just a hobby or research operating system. Their success outside of the relatively tiny spheres of research and hobby operating system development means that they have an actual user basis, and a team is working on it (or has regular contributions). They are definitely more than a one-person-project. Forks, clones of proprietary OSes, as well as research projects sponsored by companies and/or universities belong in this list too.
Projects that are still in the hobby development phase but are mature, can be found at Notable Projects.
Everyone is welcome to add their own projects to the regular Projects list of all hobbyist operating systems.
Advanced and Successful Alternative Operating Systems
 9frontPlan9front (or 9front) is a fork of the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system. The project was started to remedy a perceived lack of devoted development resources inside Bell Labs, and has accumulated various fixes and improvements. |
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 Amiga Research Operating SystemAROS aims to create a free open source AmigaOS like OS and make it better than the original. Our homepage: http://aros.sourceforge.net |
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 FreeDOSToday, FreeDOS is ideal for anyone who wants to bundle a version of DOS without having to pay a royalty for use of DOS. FreeDOS will also work on old hardware and embedded systems. FreeDOS is also an invaluable resource for people who would like to develop their own operating system. While there are many free operating systems out there, no other free DOS-compatible operating system exists. |
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 Kolibri OSKolibri OS was a fork of the 32-bit version of Menuet OS but has changed much along the way. Despite fitting on a standard 1.44 MB floppy, this wonderful OS contains: the complete GUI desktop, a lot of drivers and great software (such as web browser and music player), system programs and games! The Kernel and most applications, libraries and drivers are written in FASM, but some are in C-- (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-- ; link to their C-- compiler: http://c--sphinx.narod.ru/). At this OS you can write the ASM code and execute it after assembling. Source code is open - http://websvn.kolibrios.org/listing.php?repname=Kolibri+OS - and the contributions are welcome! |
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 HaikuFully featured open source operating system inspired by the commercial Be Operating System. Has a preemptive, modular kernel, nearly complete POSIX compatibility, a nice (non-X11-based) GUI, and a wide variety of ported and native applications (including a WebKit based browser). Nearly the entire operating system is written in C++98 (including the kernel), albeit with little usage of exceptions. |
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 HelenOSPreemptive microkernel multiserver design, SMP support, lightweight IPC, thread-local storage and user-space managed fibrils. Developed at ETH University Zürich. Our homepage: http://www.helenos.org/ |
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LK (Little Kernel)An open source embedded multiprocessor kernel for ARM, x86, x86-64. Other platforms are work-in-progress and are in various stages of development with varying activity. |
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 MinixMINIX 3 is a free, open-source, operating system designed to be highly reliable, flexible, and secure. It is based on a tiny microkernel running in kernel mode with the rest of the operating system running as a number of isolated, protected, processes in user mode. It runs on x86 and ARM CPUs, is compatible with NetBSD, and runs thousands of NetBSD packages. Developed at VU University, Amsterdam |
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 ReactOSA GPL project to clone WinNT written from scratch. It runs: Firefox, OpenOffice, Quake III Arena and much more. A lot of work is still need to be done. Looking for developers |
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 SerenityOSA graphical Unix-like operating system for desktop computers. It aims to marry the aesthetic of late-1990s productivity software and the power-user accessibility of late-2000s *nix. |
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