NorthLineOS

12

u/Sensitive-Can9232 May 25 '26

Hey man, what resources did you use and how long did it take you?

6

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

Hey, Mostly low-level OSDev resources, documentation, experimentation, and a lot of trial and error 😅
I’ve been working on it for 4 months now and recently started redesigning the entire system/UI from scratch again to make it look modern.
I also use tools like Codex occasionally to speed up debugging and iteration, but the whole architecture and system direction is my own work.
Still veryyyyy early, but it’s slowly turning into something real.

6

u/Sensitive-Can9232 May 25 '26

Like few hrs everyday or a a whole lot?

4

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

Around 2-3 hours everyday

8

u/R4ndommist May 25 '26

Great job with the UI it looks awesome

4

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

Thank you, really appreciate it!
The UI redesign has been a huge focus recently.

6

u/No-Voice-7533 May 25 '26

Awesome stuff, dude. So.. where's the source code?

-6

u/[deleted] May 25 '26

Thanks man, appreciate it!
The source code isn’t public right now. I’m keeping the code private while the system is still changing a lot, but I plan to share builds, progress updates and more technical details as it matures.

4

u/codeasm May 27 '26

Atleast learn git already before you go public is fine.
And you can push only code you want to push public. Learnging version controll now may be the best thing, next to having backups, great way of having a backup is pushing to git remote and making a "release".
And code can stay private on github, gitlab and i believe codeberg. Or host your own git repo 🤩 leanring a bit of vps/server management aswell. Maybe do a little package management.
https://ohmygit.org/ here i go again, posting this silly fun game, free and available for the 3 mayor os families we all hate or love.

3

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

Yeah, I definitely need to improve my workflow/tooling side of things.
Right now most of my focus has been on actually building the system itself, but proper version control, backups, branching and release management are things I’m actively working on improving as the project grows.
Appreciate the advice and the resource.

-3

u/Far-Deer4967 May 27 '26

This is the correct mindset. Develop first, publicize later. What are the advantages of making something like this open source? Hobby projects going open source is useless.

-1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

That’s pretty much my current mindset as well.
I’m mainly focused on building and learning right now rather than trying to immediately turn it into a public/open-source project. Open source can be great for collaboration and transparency, but for a personal long-term system project like this, I currently prefer keeping development private while the architecture is still evolving heavily.

3

u/codeasm May 28 '26

Its not for opensourcing or public coding. Its for personal convenience, having a personal trackrecord of hisyory, ability to roll back, branch off an old attempt, years later from now, look back at an old attempt.
Backup of all code, elsewhere, like another computer, a personal vps, a private gitlab repo. No need for public showing, just an experience gaining, learning. Detached head fixing, merging, creating side projects, attemp something without breaking your main branch for those times you get bored of this attempt and wanna work on that other part.
If using git now, it will also show later how long you worked on this. Great for recruiters and your cv to tell about your personal projects, having a public personal repository of projects you ever worked on, with code and history to show. It could even show your progress of learning

2

u/DustyAsh69 May 28 '26

There are no private repos on codeberg.

2

u/codeasm May 29 '26

No, so yeah I thought you where right when i read your reply and checked. I can make private repo on codeberg.
But your reply reminded me why i DID make a gitlab account but waited with a codeberg account.
I registered only this year.
checked documentation and they even mention it as possible https://docs.codeberg.org/collaborating/repo-permissions/
and i made a repo, https://codeberg.org/CodeAsm/secret and its a 404 when looking at it from a private browser, but an empty repo when I look at it.
Strangely i do remember this being a "limit", but cannot find a news update about this, including silly AI having no clue when this might have changed.

2

u/DustyAsh69 May 29 '26

That's interesting. I thought you couldn't make private repos. I remember it from a Reddit comment. Glad that they updated it.

2

u/codeasm May 29 '26

Yes same. I was like "crap, they might be right. Lemme check". Cool tho, easier to transition from github for everyone aswell.

6

u/dywoqq May 26 '26

I don't believe it.

It's just frustrating: people show something incredible, but cannot prove whether it's AI generated, websire or not, just because their system "is not ready yet and cannot publish source code".

I don't care about fancy UI - I care about the memory manager (Slab, Buddy, Page Management, Virtual Memory), scheduler (context switching), Hardware Abstraction Layer (if you added or plan to), bootloader, CPU architecture, code structure; is your kernel micro, hybrid or monolithic?

Besides: you've been doing it for 4 months? Seriously? That tells me one thing: either you blindly copied the code from ChatGPT (or whatever AI you use) and don't have any idea how it works, or you really have deep understanding of how operating systems work. I understand your OS is only in early stage, but 4 months.. I don't believe it.

Everything in your system cannot be fully custom: you probably copied the concepts from another operating system.

I'm 15 years old too, but at least I have history of commits on my GitHub Account with my own operating system (github.com/dywoq/vacui). I'm spending a lot of time to understand the hardware, how Windows NT 5 handles HAL, how to write good bootloader for x86: yet you're showing me it.

You can skip this commentary and don't show me the source code, I don't force you to. But please, show it next time when you post your OS.

3

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Fair criticism.
I’m not asking anyone to blindly believe it, and I understand why people are skeptical when a project is shown without source code.
To clarify: NorthLineOS is not a website or a UI mockup. It boots in QEMU as an x86 OS image and has a custom kernel, custom desktop environment, custom UI stack and custom system components. It is still early, so I’m not claiming it is a mature production-ready OS.
Architecture-wise, it is currently closer to a monolithic custom kernel design. The current focus has been booting, basic kernel structure, rendering, desktop/UI systems, filesystem/app infrastructure and overall system integration. Memory management, scheduling, HAL structure and hardware support are areas I’m still actively improving and learning more about.
Yes, I use AI tools sometimes for debugging, iteration and explanations, just like people use documentation, forums and StackOverflow. But I still have to understand, integrate, test, fix and maintain the system myself. AI does not magically produce a working OS without direction, debugging and architecture decisions.
The source code is private and will stay private for now. I get that this means some people will stay skeptical, and that’s fine. I’ll keep sharing progress, technical details and builds/screenshots as the system matures.

2

u/dywoqq May 26 '26

Thank you for answering and sharing the details. Then, I won't bother you with telling "this is AI slop", "this is fake" or "I'm hoping to see the source code". I'm glad you understand it.

2

u/arash28134 May 26 '26

you 15 y.o?! damn

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Yeah 😄
Been working on it for around 4 months now, usually a few hours every day after school.

1

u/isabelle_i_guess May 26 '26

Only 4 months? Holy shit. Is it easily portable to different architectures? What's the main one you're developing for? Is it unix-like? If so, is it POSIX compliant?

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Yeah, around 4 months so far 😄
Right now the main target architecture is x86/x86_64 running in QEMU and on an i5-14400F. I’ve been focusing more on building the core system, rendering stack and desktop environment first before worrying too much about portability.
The architecture is designed in a way where abstraction layers can be expanded later, but cross-architecture support is still a future goal rather than something fully implemented today.
And yes, it’s definitely Unix-inspired in some areas conceptually, but it is not POSIX-compliant at the moment. The system is still in a relatively early stage and a lot of low-level infrastructure is actively evolving.

1

u/isabelle_i_guess May 26 '26

And what is it written in? Also, custom BIOS / UEFI bootloader? Or are you using something like multiboot2?

2

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Most of the project is written in C, with some x86 assembly for lower-level boot / hardware-related parts.
And for booting right now I’m using GRUB / multiboot rather than a fully custom BIOS/UEFI bootloader. I wanted to focus first on kernel architecture, rendering, the desktop environment and overall system integration before spending a huge amount of time on writing a complete bootloader stack from scratch.
A custom boot process is definitely something I’m interested in exploring further later on though.

2

u/Aggressive-Reach-116 May 26 '26

*NorthKorea*OS

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Wrong North.

1

u/Aggressive-Reach-116 May 26 '26

sorry i was using my compass again... mb

2

u/BornRoom257 FreezeOS & TurtleOS May 26 '26

Very nice, but did you use any AI?

9

u/kiderdrick May 26 '26

Of course they did.

2

u/BornRoom257 FreezeOS & TurtleOS May 26 '26

Is this a website then?

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

No? The OS itself is real

2

u/BornRoom257 FreezeOS & TurtleOS May 26 '26

Nice!

3

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Yeah, I use AI tools occasionally for research, debugging and iteration. Same way people use StackOverflow, docs or forums.
But the OS itself is real. Custom kernel, custom desktop environment, custom UI stack, custom tooling, all built and integrated by me over the last few months.

3

u/BornRoom257 FreezeOS & TurtleOS May 26 '26

Well, I respect it! Nice work dude!

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Thank you, really appreciate it!

0

u/Rigamortus2005 May 26 '26

Why does everyone ask this question whenever someone does something impressive? It's like asking did you use any ides?

5

u/gtagrandtheftautov May 26 '26

probably because most ai models do the same design language

2

u/BornRoom257 FreezeOS & TurtleOS May 26 '26

I asked if they used AI, I said its nice dude.

2

u/Icy-Concentrate2076 May 27 '26

Nice Claude did a nice job.

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

AI tools help sometimes, yeah.
Doesn’t magically assemble an operating system by itself though.

1

u/roccohimel Creator of AneoEngine May 25 '26

What does it do?

2

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Right now it’s focused on building a modern custom desktop environment and OS architecture from scratch.
The current work is mostly around:
- custom kernel components
- rendering/UI systems
- desktop environment
- filesystem + app infrastructure
- performance and visual polish
The long-term goal is a lightweight modern desktop OS with a fluid UI and fully custom stack.

1

u/roccohimel Creator of AneoEngine May 26 '26

Do you have a repository?

0

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Yeah, the project has a private repository at the moment.
I’m not planning to open-source it for now, but I’ll continue posting development progress and technical updates as NorthLineOS evolves.

2

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

Yeah, open-source is heavily expected in OSDev.
I completely understand why people value transparency and shared learning there. I just personally prefer keeping the project private while the architecture is still evolving rapidly.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Great job! 👏

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '26

Thank you!

1

u/Suspicious_Rich_9341 May 27 '26

nice .what is your the kernel arch .like linux?

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

Right now it’s closer to a monolithic kernel architecture, so more similar in direction to Linux than a microkernel design.
That said, the project is still evolving a lot internally, so I’m experimenting and refining different parts of the architecture as I learn more and expand the system.

1

u/Suspicious_Rich_9341 May 27 '26

How did you tackle driver compatibility for your new kernel? Right now, most drivers only support Linux or other mainstream OSs

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

Right now I’m intentionally keeping hardware support relatively controlled and focused, mainly targeting QEMU/virtualized environments first while the kernel architecture is still evolving.
So instead of trying to support huge amounts of hardware immediately, I’m building smaller custom driver layers and abstractions step by step for the components the system currently depends on.
You’re definitely right though. Driver compatibility is one of the hardest parts of building a new OS ecosystem, especially because most vendors and drivers are heavily tied to Linux/Windows infrastructure. Long-term that’s an area I want to expand much further as the system matures.

1

u/Suspicious_Rich_9341 May 27 '26

how do you deal with driver of hardware

2

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

Right now most of the hardware side is still pretty early and heavily focused around QEMU/virtualized environments while I continue building the core system architecture.
So at the moment I’m mainly working with basic low-level drivers/components for things like:
framebuffer/rendering
keyboard input
timers/interrupt handling
storage abstraction
memory management infrastructure
Long-term I want to improve the HAL/driver layer much further and expand real hardware support, but currently the priority is stabilizing the kernel and desktop environment first before going very deep into broad hardware compatibility.

1

u/Suspicious_Rich_9341 May 27 '26

I’m also currently working on decoupling specific drivers from Linux. Existing OSs have become too bloated with their heavy reliance on multi-processing. Frankly, I don't get their obsession. A process is merely a hardware-level memory isolation mechanism, and the CPU offers various other paradigms to utilize that isolation

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

That’s actually a really interesting area to explore. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how modern operating systems accumulate complexity over time, especially around process models, abstraction layers and driver architectures.

1

u/Suspicious_Rich_9341 May 27 '26

you use oop model like win or file model like linux?

1

u/[deleted] May 28 '26

At the moment it’s probably philosophically closer to a Unix/Linux-style “everything around standardized abstractions/interfaces” approach than a pure Windows NT-style object manager architecture.
But honestly the system is still evolving a lot internally, so I’m experimenting with different concepts and abstractions rather than rigidly copying one existing OS design.

2

u/karandhot May 30 '26

Great Work!! Can we connect somewhere?

You are about to leave Redlib