SerenityOS is a Graphical Unix-like Operating System for x86-64 Computers

Hazem Abbas

Jan 10, 2024 — 2 min read

SerenityOS is a love letter to '90s user interfaces with a custom Unix-like core. It flatters with sincerity by stealing beautiful ideas from various other systems.

Roughly speaking, the goal is a marriage between the aesthetic of late-1990s productivity software and the power-user accessibility of late-2000s *nix.

Features

Modern x86 64-bit kernel with pre-emptive multi-threading
Browser with JavaScript, WebAssembly, and more (check the spec compliance for JS, CSS, and Wasm)
Security features (hardware protections, limited userland capabilities, W^X memory, pledge & unveil, (K)ASLR, OOM-resistance, web-content isolation, state-of-the-art TLS algorithms, ...)
System services (WindowServer, LoginServer, AudioServer, WebServer, RequestServer, CrashServer, ...) and modern IPC
Good POSIX compatibility (LibC, Shell, syscalls, signals, pseudoterminals, filesystem notifications, standard Unix utilities, ...)
POSIX-like virtual file systems (/proc, /dev, /sys, /tmp, ...) and ext2 file system
Network stack and applications with support for IPv4, TCP, UDP; DNS, HTTP, Gemini, IMAP, NTP
Profiling, debugging and other development tools (Kernel-supported profiling, detailed program analysis with software emulation in UserspaceEmulator, CrashReporter, interactive GUI playground, HexEditor, HackStudio IDE for C++ and more)
Libraries for everything from cryptography to OpenGL, audio, JavaScript, GUI, playing chess, ...
Support for many common and uncommon file formats (PNG, JPEG, GIF, MP3, WAV, FLAC, ZIP, TAR, PDF, QOI, Gemini, ...)
Unified style and design philosophy, flexible theming system, custom (bitmap and vector) fonts
Games (Solitaire, Minesweeper, 2048, chess, Conway's Game of Life, ...) and demos (CatDog, Starfield, Eyes, mandelbrot set, WidgetGallery, ...)
Every-day GUI programs and utilities (Spreadsheet with JavaScript, TextEditor, Terminal, PixelPaint, various multimedia viewers and players, Mail, Assistant, Calculator, ...)

License

SerenityOS is licensed under a 2-clause BSD license.

Resources & Downloads

Download

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