Os8088: A powerful Mac-like OS for the IBM XT, 286, 386
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A Mac-like GUI operating system for the IBM PC XT and compatibles, built in real-mode assembly.
Os8088 runs on Intel 8086/8088, 286, and 386 machines with 256 KB of RAM, CGA or VGA, and a floppy drive. It features a cooperative or pre-emptive scheduler, a dock, windows with minimize boxes, and a FAT12/16 file system. Bundled apps include a note pad, paint program, four-channel MOD player, fractal viewer, minesweeper, solitaire, arkanoid, piano, and sound recorder. The kernel, about 66,000 lines of assembly, was written with assistance from Claude (Anthropic). It supports mouse, keyboard, and Sound Blaster, and can run multiple instances of the same program simultaneously.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are impressed by the technical achievement but divided on the AI-written code. Some celebrate the project as a glimpse of what early PC GUIs could have been, akin to GEOS or the Amiga. Others note that 66,000 lines of 'hand-written' assembly were actually produced with heavy prompting of Claude, and question the copyright status of such output. The author confirms Claude's role while defending the work as a learning process. Several users share memories of GeoWorks and other early PC windowing systems.