The Strangest Operating Systems Ever Released
Windows, macOS, and Linux dominate the world of home computing, but hobbyists have churned out some truly niche operating systems.
Ninety-nine percent of computer users don’t give a single thought to their operating system. It comes with the machine, it gets updated automatically, and that’s all there is to it. But here at PCMag, we like to talk about that other 1 percent.
If you’re really interested in getting into the guts of how your home PC works, installing a new operating system is a fascinating way to do it. While there are many alternative OS choices with dedicated user bases, there are also some weird beasts out there, made for niche interests and unique hardware. Here’s a tour through some of the strangest operating systems ever released.
TempleOS
Creating an operating system is, by nature, a quixotic project. You need a certain kind of drive to interface with hardware at the most basic level, and Terry Davis had that drive. After receiving what he claims was a message from God, Davis began development of TempleOS in 2003 and released it to the world in 2011. Seeing his software as “God’s third temple,” Davis created an operating system featuring an 8-bit ASCII display that ran at a max resolution of 640 by 480. Written in a programming language he called HolyC, TempleOS also linked to a number of unique pieces of software designed for use in TempleOS, including a flight simulator. Sadly, Davis died in 2018.
Collapse OS
Developer Virgil Dupras knows that the end times are nigh, and the few irradiated, virus-ridden scavengers of the post-apocalyptic wasteland are going to need computers. Scraping together hardware from junk doesn’t guarantee a lot of power, so Dupras decided to invent Collapse OS.
This operating system has a z80 kernel and suite of programs capable of self-replication and self-installation across a wide range of devices, along with a variety of other functions. The kernel and shell is less than 5K bytes and he’s already got it running on processors ranging from a TRS/80 to a Sega Genesis.
AROS
For a chunk of time in the 1980s, it looked like Commodore was going to rule the home computer market. The Commodore 64 delivered vibrant color graphics during an era of monochrome DOS machines. The 16/32 bit Amiga presented a high-end machine that became industry standard for audio and video editing. Things obviously didn’t work out, but the operating system of those computers is still beloved today. A group of enthusiasts developed AROS, a source-compatible version of it for modern PCs.
TRON
We tend to think of the OS wars as having already been won by the few major players, but would it surprise you to know that one operating system you’ve never heard of runs a flabbergasting amount of hardware invisibly?
Initiated by Dr. Ken Sakamura at the University of Tokyo, The Real-Time Operating system Nucleus was designed to be source-agnostic, meaning that it can be deployed on a wide variety of hardware. The Industrial branch alone is on billions of mobile phones and portable devices across Asia.
What’s interesting about TRON is that Japanese companies wanted to bring it to the West, only for lobbying from Microsoft to kill the expansion project. The US Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 at one point included language that would heavily penalize any Japanese company attempting to sell hardware with TRON installed here.
Red Star OS
North Korea is well known for its relentless isolation from the outside world, and that goes for computer software as well. Systems in the DPRK don’t run on Windows or macOS — instead, they use Red Star, or Pulgŭnbyŏl.
This Unix-like operating system was developed at the country’s Computer Center and includes a modified Firefox-based browser that allows access to the state-run network, a text editor, and even games. As you’d expect from a paranoid security state, Red Star also includes numerous user-unfriendly features like a watermarking system that tags all files with the install’s unique serial number so they can be tracked, as well as backdoor access for the Korean secret service.
Suicide Linux
Many of these operating systems lack the quality of life and user-friendliness features we’ve come to expect from modern software. One particularly heinous Linux build takes that philosophy to a very intense place.
Installing Suicide Linux onto your PC is like playing a game of Russian roulette, with your typing accuracy as the trigger. If you type any command that the standard Linux operating system doesn’t recognize, the compiler interprets it as you asking to wipe and format your hard drive. You’ve got one shot, buddy — make it count.
Sabily
Also known as “Ubuntu Muslim Edition,” Sabily was a customized Linux distribution introduced in 2007 to serve the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims. In addition to the standard features that the OS shipped with, Sabily included Arabic language support without any additional customization. The operating system also boasted a number of unique pieces of software to help the devout. Minbar is a tray icon application that plays the Muslim call to prayer multiple times a day, and the Zakat Calc program helps users determine the different amounts of mandatory charitable contribution that Islamic law demands. Sabily was discontinued in 2011, but it’s still available on ArchiveOS.
Visopsys
Another one-man show, Visopsys is the brainchild of Andy McLaughlin, who set out to create his own operating system entirely from thin air in 1997. After taking a computer science course that focused on OS theory, McLaughlin was bit by the bug and decided to make his own. He spent the first year just getting to “Hello World,” but from there he built a ton of different modules and functions, including hardware drivers, windowed GUI and more. It’s highly likely that McLaughlin will continue to tinker away on this project for as long as there are computers he can install it on.
PonyOS
The world of boutique distributions is a complicated one, and there are operating systems for seemingly every interest. One that’s particularly fascinating is PonyOS, which is a hobbyist system built from scratch by and for fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The creators deny it’s a Linux system — instead, it’s built on top of another very weird OS, Toaru.
Like its base, PonyOS boasts support for several open-source programs and utilities, as well as a basic window manager for multitasking. One of the weirdest quirks of both is that windows cannot only be moved and resized, but also rotated. Plus—there are ponies on everything.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com.
