Impossible
Operating System
A modern x86-64 operating system built from scratch. Native Win32 API compatibility. Linux binary support. Windows 11‑inspired desktop. 100% open source.
Countdown to First Release
Target release: August 8, 2028
Three Worlds. One Kernel.
One kernel for Windows apps, native Impossible OS programs and, next, Linux binaries.
Native Win32 Compatibility
The Win32 API is the kernel's native interface, not an emulation layer or a virtual machine: CreateFile() and ReadFile() go straight to native NT system calls, and PE32+ executables load and run natively. The full Win32 subsystem is still being built.
Linux Binary Support
Planned: unmodified Linux ELF binaries through a built-in compatibility layer, with open(), read(), fork() and exec() translated to native kernel calls. No WSL, no containers. Not implemented yet.
Built From Scratch
Not a Linux distro. Not a Windows fork. The kernel, the UEFI bootloader and the desktop are original C and x86-64 assembly; mature libraries such as ACPICA are vendored where rewriting them would only add bugs.
1,401,350 Lines of CodeWhat Works Today
What works today, and how far each area is along its roadmap.
IXFS and FAT32 Filesystems
IXFS, our own filesystem, with journaling, copy-on-write and 64-bit extents, plus FAT32 read and write for USB drives.
16 roadmap sections to goAHCI and NVMe Storage
AHCI with DMA and NCQ command queuing, and a native NVMe driver. A legacy ATA PIO driver remains as a fallback for older machines.
11 roadmap sections to goWindows 11 Style Desktop
Taskbar, Start menu and a compositing window manager with frosted Acrylic surfaces and dirty-rectangle redraw. Mica window title bars are next.
13 roadmap sections to goSMP Multi-Core
Boots every CPU and schedules threads across all of them with a fair round-robin scheduler, plus mutexes, semaphores, RW locks, seqlocks and a basic RCU. Per-CPU run queues and CFS-style fair sharing are planned.
24 roadmap sections to goNetworking
Ethernet, ARP, IPv4, ICMP, UDP and DHCP with an RTL8139 driver work today. TCP, DNS and a VirtIO-net driver are planned.
25 roadmap sections to goUEFI Secure Boot
A UEFI-only bootloader with a GOP framebuffer: no legacy BIOS, no VGA text mode. It reads the Secure Boot state and supports shim chain-loading and SBAT, but builds boot directly today: a shim signed under the Microsoft 2023 CA is still pending.
5 roadmap sections to goWindows Registry
A Windows-compatible registry with HKLM and HKCU hives, RegOpenKeyEx and RegSetValueEx, saved to disk. Transactions and faster hive storage are in progress.
16 roadmap sections to goSIMD Graphics
SSE2-accelerated drawing on the CPU: pre-multiplied alpha blending, gradients, blur, TrueType text and a glyph cache. GPU acceleration is a research item.
16 roadmap sections to goWin32 SDK
A minimal user-mode Win32 header set over native NT system calls today: GetCurrentProcessId, GetTickCount, CreateFileA, ReadFile and CloseHandle. The full Win32 SDK and packaged releases are planned.
19 roadmap sections to goBuilt to Perform
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it actually possible to write a custom OS entirely from scratch?
Technically, no. Practically, also no. But we're doing it anyway.
Can a solo developer really compete against a 500+ person corporate engineering team?
Absolutely not. But why let a little thing like impossible odds get in the way? We're giving it a go anyway.
Will this work seamlessly like Windows 11?
Highly unlikely. We might not even have a functioning classic control panel right away, but that isn't going to stop us from trying to build a better experience from the ground up.
Do we really need yet another operating system in the world?
No. The market is completely saturated. But here it is anyway. Enjoy.
Is Impossible OS stable enough for daily use?
If your definition of "daily use" involves sudden kernel panics and debugging C at 3 AM, then yes, it's perfect. Otherwise, proceed with extreme caution.
When will it be finished?
Sometime between next month and the end of time. Good software takes time; impossible software takes just a little bit longer.
Are we stupid or something?
No. We just have a severe, incurable allergy to people telling us something is "impossible."
Join the Journey
Impossible OS is fully open source. Star the repo, download the alpha, or contribute code.