guideXOS
An operating-system ecosystem spanning desktop OS experimentation, systems-platform research, and future emulation work.
guideXOS is the umbrella for related operating-system efforts that share a design language while pursuing different technical goals.
Pick the branch that fits your path today, then follow the build, wiki, and project pages that match it.
For questions, updates, or collaboration: guide_X@live.com
Pick your path
guideXOS brings the desktop operating-system experience, while guideXOS Server pushes toward a multi-architecture systems platform for modern and revived hardware.
guideXOS
The original C#/AOT desktop operating-system project, with closely related Legacy BIOS and UEFI boot editions. Legacy BIOS is currently the more stable demo path, while UEFI remains an experimental bring-up target for debugging and future boot work.
guideXOS Server
A sibling branch under the guideXOS umbrella, focused on a native, multi-architecture systems platform with a UEFI-first direction, active build-and-test workflows, and a future installable ISO path still being prepared.
Why guideXOS?
Built around portability, layered design, and evidence-driven OS engineering
Strict Layered Architecture
guideXOS Server keeps the bootloader focused on loading the kernel, keeps the kernel boot-aware, and pushes desktop behavior into higher layers instead of taking shortcuts across subsystems.
Kernel Networking
The current kernel already includes Ethernet, ARP, IPv4, ICMP, UDP, TCP, DHCP, DNS, and a BSD-like socket layer for building real networking features.
Storage and Filesystems
guideXOS Server already brings up ATA, AHCI, NVMe, and USB storage along with FAT32, exFAT, ext2/4, and UFS support for practical boot and file access scenarios.
Universal Application Vision
Phase 8 is centered on `.gxapp`, a single package format meant to hold architecture-specific binaries so guideXOS apps can move toward compile-once packaging.
Real Hardware Paths
The project is tested through UEFI, BIOS, OpenSBI, serial consoles, framebuffer backends, and VM workflows so features can be validated beyond a hosted harness.
Desktop Experience Still Matters
Even while the kernel evolves, guideXOS continues to aim for a recognizable desktop experience with applications, a start menu, screenshots, and user-facing tools instead of kernel-only demos.
Quick Start
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Join the Development
Open source and community driven
guideXOS Server is an active research project covering bootloaders, kernels, filesystems, networking, architecture ports, and future developer tooling. If you care about operating systems, low-level portability, or long-horizon application models, there is meaningful work to do.
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