I make the specification of non-linux because otherwise this would just become a thread full of obscure distros that do the same thing as a million other distros.

Some lesser known OSs:

  • AROS - based on Amiga OS, has some derivatives like IcarOS and MorphOS
  • Haiku - based on BeOS
  • Redox - Unix-like, made in Rust (might technically count as linux?)
  • Serenity - Unix-like, very late 90s look and feel
  • Kolibri - Tiny OS, the image is ~44MB. It also has a smaller version that fits in a single floppy.
  • PhantomOS - When 3 Russians decide to turn everything about a typical OS upside down.
  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
    451·
    30 days ago

    TempleOS, because for it to go mainstream, a sizeable chunk of the population would need to go fully insane, and I think that’d be interesting

  • Blaster M@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    1 month ago

    ReactOS. The “We have Windows at home” OS.

    Maybe then it will see proper development to become that which it should be.

    • I Cast Fist@programming.devOP
      8·
      30 days ago

      I wish I would win top prize of some lottery, I’d donate a good deal of money to ReactOS and pray it finally developed enough to at least manage to make stable installer images

  • gregorum@lemm.eeEnglish
    201·
    1 month ago

    Haiku - based on BeOS

    “inspired by” would be more accurate. there’s no original BeOS code in Haiku for legal reasons (other than the interface, which was open-sourced with the release of BeOS 5). All backwards-compatibility with original BeOS software is (impressively) reverse-engineered. Haiku OS is, itself, original software made to - in every way - look, feel, and operate just like BeOS did.

    edit: i had a buddy in high school who had a BeBox. it was like having the best of a Mac and a PC in one machine. it really was a spectacular machine and OS. i really wish Apple had picked it up, but they went with NeXTSTEP instead, which, i admit, was still a pretty solid choice.

  • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
    161·
    29 days ago

    Redox isn’t Linux, it uses its own kernel. I want this one to succeed above all others, just because Rust was born to perform this kind of application: guaranteed memory safety when dealing with tens of thousands of lines of code handling hundreds of moving parts running thousands of different tasks, all at a very low level.

    I’ll second Plan 9, just because it sounds like scifi and truly takes advantage of how interconnected all computing hardware has become.

    Third place goes to anything based on GNU Hurd. The microkernel architecture intrigues me, and I’d like to know how it effects the end user. Plus I’m just a big fan of the copyleft/FOSS aspect.

    Also, I’d just like any mobile device alternative that’s not AOSP, and Linux seems like a bad fit for mobile in general. Why do we need a fully-featured, all-purpose kernel when we’re only gonna put it on a known number of SoCs and therefore a known set of hardware configurations? We could be optimizing the hell out of our privacy-friendly mobile OSes, but instead we’ve shackled ourselves to google or linux

  • kylie_kraft@lemmy.world
    151·
    30 days ago

    Firefox OS. …really I just want Chrome OS but FOSS by Mozilla. I know it’s anti-privacy, but having sign-in + 1 click deployment on a new device is dope

  • FireWire400@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    1 month ago

    Haiku is already pretty great to use in my opinion, despite still being in beta; with the right hardware you could easily daily drive it

  • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    1 month ago

    HURD, obviously.

    I’m happy with any OS as long as it’s GNU.

  • d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz
    8·
    30 days ago

    Serenity for sure. I love the 90s aesthetic and would like to see it make a comeback. At the very least I’d like to see their Ladybird browser become mainstream - we really need more alternatives to the Chromium family.