Ashet OS

Introduction

Ashet OS is a basic OS that will let you understand the very basic fundamentals that makes for an OS. It will be designed and documented in a way that lets you choose an area, be it networking, sound, graphics handling, memory management, file systems etc and let you dive into just that specific area. With Ashet OS you should finally have a chance to understand all the magic concepts that makes up an OS.

Ashet OS isn’t just another operating system. It’s an experiment in simplicity, approachability, and modern design, built to prove that you can have a responsive, hackable, and portable OS—without bloated complexity or unnecessary barriers. Whether you’re a curious hacker, retro computing enthusiast, or just someone tired of waiting on modern machines, Ashet OS aims to inspire and empower.

The Vision

The vision for Ashet OS is clear: to create an operating system that is actually useful, simple enough to be hacked on, and runs on almost anything – even ultra-low-end hardware. Ashet OS is designed from the ground up to be:

• Simple: So anyone can dive in and understand or tinker.
• Useful: Not just a toy – capable enough for real projects and daily tasks.
• Portable: Built for many architectures from day one.
• Accessible: Usable on minimal hardware (just 8 MB RAM!) and also easily runnable as a desktop app on modern machines.

Motivation & Inspirations

Why build a new OS? The honest answer: Just for Fun. No, Really.

But a few sparks helped light the fire:

• Amiga OS showed what’s possible: blazingly fast and snappy on a 68k processor with just 8 MHz.
• SerenityOS brought a sense of modern ambition and fun to open-source OS design.
• Redox OS, Plan 9, and others keep the world excited about OS innovation.
• Frustration with today’s sluggishness: It’s baffling how slow modern Windows can feel on incredibly powerful hardware. Ashet OS is proof it doesn’t have to be that way.

The result is a project born of curiosity, inspiration, and a touch of rebellion – a challenge to see just how elegant and capable an OS can be.

Key Features

• Multi-platform from the start: Designed to run on different CPU architectures and systems, including RISC-V, Arm, and x86
• Runs on low-end machines: 8 MB RAM is enough.
• Asynchronous syscall design for responsive applications.
• Full multi-tasking: Processes, threads, IPC, shared memory, pipes, sync primitives.
• Innovative graphics API and built-in GUI: Inspired by many, but does its own thing.
• Networking: Native TCP and UDP support.
• Filesystem: Supports multiple filesystem types for real-world use cases.

Platforms

The Design Philosophy

• No security focus: Prioritizes approachability and learning; removing mitigations means fewer roadblocks to understanding how things work.
• Monolithic kernel: Keeps things simple, straightforward, and hackable.
• 32-bit only: Ensures portable, modular code without the headaches of having differently sized pointers.
• Cooperative scheduling: No need for interrupts, no typical multi-threading hazards; the tradeoff (one bad actor can halt the OS) is accepted in the name of clarity and hackability.
• Not Unix philosophy: Specialized syscalls for specialized tasks, don’t try to cramp everything into a single interface.
• Modern, intentional choices: Every aspect is designed to be understandable, inviting, and open for exploration.

Progress So Far

• OS boots into desktop
• GUI is running and supports window management and desktop elements
• Networking stack is integrated and can open TCP/UDP sockets
• Multi-tasking is functional with process/thread support
• Filesystem driver(s) can mount and interact with multiple formats

Screenshots can be found in the gallery.

Try It Yourself

Ashet OS is fully open source and surprisingly easy to try – no installation or virtual machine required! You can run it as a regular desktop application on Linux and Windows. Download, play, hack, and explore.

Want to shape the project, provide feedback, or just see what it’s about? Jump in, share your ideas, and help build something new:

github.com/Ashet-Technologies/Ashet-OS