MetalOS

An extremely minimalist OS - One app, one purpose, zero cruft.

MetalOS boots directly to a single full-screen QT6 application. No shell, no filesystem, no complexity.

Philosophy

"If it doesn't help QT6 Hello World, it doesn't exist."

This OS exists solely to run one QT6 application on AMD64 + Radeon RX 6600 hardware. Everything else is cut.

Design Principles

✅ Boot directly to app - No command line or shell
✅ Single application - One process, always running
✅ No filesystem - App embedded in boot image
✅ Static linking only - Maximum simplicity
✅ Creative freedom - Not bound by POSIX or tradition
✅ Precise drivers - Hardware code follows specs exactly

• The main app is kinda part of the kernel, but we just put it in a different folder in this repo. No concept of users, unless it just a feature in the QT6 app, but thats unrelated.

What We Cut

See docs/MINIMALISM.md for full philosophy.

❌ Scheduler ❌ Process management ❌ Filesystem
❌ Networking ❌ Security ❌ Multi-core
❌ Dynamic linking ❌ ACPI ❌ Virtual memory complexity

What We Keep (Absolute Minimum)

✅ Memory allocator (bump allocator)
✅ ~5 interrupt handlers (timer, keyboard, mouse, GPU)
✅ GPU driver (framebuffer only, ~50 KB)
✅ Input drivers (PS/2 first, USB fallback, ~20 KB)
✅ PCI scan (just find our GPU)
✅ ~5 syscalls (write, mmap, ioctl, poll, exit)

Target OS Size: ~200 KB (excluding QT6)

Development Phases

Phase 1: Project Foundation ✅ COMPLETE
Phase 2: UEFI Bootloader (Next)
Phase 3: Core Kernel Components
Phase 4: Hardware Support
Phase 5: System Call Interface
Phase 6: User Space & Application
Phase 7: QT6 Port
Phase 8: Integration & Testing

See docs/ROADMAP.md for detailed phase breakdown.

Building

make all      # Build bootloader, kernel, and userspace
make test     # Run unit tests
make qemu     # Test in QEMU
make clean    # Clean build artifacts

See docs/BUILD.md for detailed build instructions.

Documentation

• ARCHITECTURE.md - System architecture and design
• MINIMALISM.md - Extreme minimalism philosophy
• ROADMAP.md - Development phases and milestones
• BUILD.md - Build system and toolchain
• DEVELOPMENT.md - Development environment setup
• STATUS.md - Current implementation status
• TESTING.md - Unit tests and QEMU testing

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines. Remember: simplicity over features.

Target Hardware

• CPU: AMD64 (x86-64)
• GPU: Radeon RX 6600
• Input: PS/2 or USB keyboard/mouse
• Boot: UEFI
• QEMU (UEFI MODE): For testing the OS.

License

See LICENSE file for details.