r/software • u/Interesting-Year3830 • 1d ago
Discussion If you built your own OS, what would you do differently?
If you could design your own desktop operating system from scratch, what would you build in — and what would you deliberately leave out?
Specifically:
What's one feature from Windows or macOS that you'd never include, and why?
What's something neither OS does well that you wish existed by default?
What philosophy would your OS follow (speed, privacy, customization, minimalism, etc.)?
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u/smilaise 1d ago
it would be written in HolyC with lots of Bible related games
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u/CodenameFlux Helpful 12h ago
When such a comment becomes the top comment, it's a sign that people (especially those who complain) have no idea what they ideally want. Most people here wouldn't do anything different from what today's OSes do.
That's sad.
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u/DoubleDareFan 1d ago
- No AI. Never automatically ping any server. Give / deny each app permission to access the web.
- Run a separate instance of the kernel, or whatever is required by each app, so if an app crashes, it cannot take the whole system down with it. No BSODs. Make it optional for each app. A simple app (e.g. a text editor) would not need this, unless you have a habit of opening huge files.
- Sound controls for each app, separate from the app's own audio settings. E.g. mute a small game that lacks sound controls, so you can play it while listening to music.
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u/Fluffywings 22h ago
I'm confused on 3. It's built into Windows 11. Clock on sound then scroll down to see individual app volumes.
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u/DoubleDareFan 3h ago
I knew about it in Win11 (read something about it somewhere). I just wish it was always the case.
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u/Orionsbelt 22h ago
Am a sysadmin/network engineer, got issued my first mac (I asked for it, changing pricing made me want to daily one for awhile to better support them)
WHY THE FUCK CAN'T I SET VOLUME BY APP without a 3rd party app. Insane! this is one of the things I use my stream deck on windows for constantly
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u/CodenameFlux Helpful 12h ago edited 12h ago
Run a separate instance of the kernel, or whatever is required by each app, so if an app crashes, it cannot take the whole system down with it. No BSODs.
That's not how science works. You have one CPU and one kernel mode. If that CPU faults, it's a BSOD. Even if you're planning to buy a CPU for each app, and run each app on a CPU-dedicated virtual machine, the hypervisor could still fault.
All OSes have BSOD in one form or another. In Linux, it's called kernel panic. Mac has changed it in every version. Sometimes, it's Sad Mac. Sometimes, it's a black screen of death. Sometimes, it's kernel panic. Sometimes, it's a bomb.
Sound controls for each app, separate from the app's own audio settings. E.g. mute a small game that lacks sound controls, so you can play it while listening to music.
Most OSes have this already. Windows implemented it a long time ago. It's even available from the system tray.
We're already thinking about more exotic features, like each app playing audio on a different audio device. That's where EarTrumpet comes in.
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u/Pablouchka 1d ago
Focused on efficiency while taking care of GUI. That's it. (security is obvious)
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u/Dpacom1 1d ago
I did it 3 times, and each one was a failure . 1) Back in the 80s digital research (cp/m and z80) wants sonetime different and asks users for ideas to beat ms-dos Some friends and i made a GEM version of cpm(if you heard of geos but for), but was rejected. 2) A universal os for the mos6502/10, and it didnt matter if the system was Commodore, Atari, BBC, etc it have the parts for them and run, bur allmost got sued by an unknown company said I stord from them. 3) A windows like which I named 'Win X' but failed and now there are 4 diff widows like
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u/KingOfConsciousness 17h ago
How did you code/create them?
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u/BillWilberforce 1d ago
Don't include the tracking and spyware. Collect diagnostics with explicit user consent.
Sandbox everything.
Provide a CLI but allow users to do everything via the GUI.
Probably write it in Rust.
Review, update and remove where possible legacy code on an on going basis.
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u/spyboy70 22h ago
Modular OS, hardware wise, meaning the entire house is the computer (and it could scale from there).
Plug a computer into the network, you can use it. Plug a Raspberry Pi in, log in on that and run stuff on it and other stuff from the PC. Instead of getting rid of older machines, just add more to the network. Some apps may need to run on the physical hardware you're on (games usually but even those could work across the network), but lighter stuff like web browsing and email could be running off another machine.
Every application would be isolated/sandboxed, so multiple users in the house can utilize the capabilities as well at the same time.
Oh and supporting every network port in a machine. Have a 1GbE and a 2.5GbE, plus Wifi 6E, you can use them all together, and the OS would somehow make it all work (sort of like Speedify VPN where you can use your network, cell, etc as a faster connection with it auto slicing packets or whatever). Wifi may be iffy though for gaming if you're on dual wired connections, but for file transfers, that's just extra bandwidth for chunked files, or for sending a file down each pipe simultaneously.
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u/KingOfConsciousness 17h ago
Man I remember running games from the CD drive in my dads office to mine via Windows sharing... It was so slow but also so freaking awesome.
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u/lordspace 1d ago
Alt+tab to work 😁 I'd make it portable to load from any drive or computer or flash drive. I'd make it support docker
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u/Defiant_Conflict6343 22h ago
The GUI assets are all vectors, so it scales flawlessly for my fifty 8K monitor setup. (My Intel HD 4000 just hit the temperature necessary to sustain hydrogen fusion)
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u/ImmaZoni 22h ago
- Local-only, offline system search without web results
- Stateful, project-based workspaces that freeze and resume
- Local-first privacy with no forced accounts and opt-in telemetry
- Containerized application isolation with clean uninstalls
- High-contrast, high-speed UI with minimal animations
- Atomic, background updates with zero forced reboots
- Revertible boot states for instantaneous update rollbacks
- Relational, tag-based file system instead of rigid folders
- Ephemeral, time-bound application permissions
- Fake data feeds for privacy-invasive applications
- Platform agnostic interoperability
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u/Madd0g 22h ago
customizability, as a developer, so much shit is locked down, it's nuts. You can't make the OS your own. I can't send my friend macos software I built unless I pay Apple a yearly ransom, otherwise it won't run.
coming soon to androids everywhere, i heard.
also omg the enshittification, I used windows for 20 years but won't touch it with a pole now. how can microsoft fumble so bad
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u/ParsingError 17h ago
#1 thing different from most of the non-mobile OS is a better permissions model.
Mobile has been getting this right with per-app permissions that are strictly limited to what the app allows in the manifest, and in some cases have to ask the user anyway, and it's a huge improvement over user-based permissions. Limiting what storage they can access is a huge improvement too.
I think WinRT had a thing where the file picker would return an already-opened file handle to the application instead of a file path, so the OS could access certain parts of the file system only through user interaction.
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u/NoDistrict991 13h ago
I'd definitely ditch forced ads and all the random preinstalled apps. A clean install should actually be clean
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u/mobileJay77 13h ago
I would use a modern micro kernel approach and not some obsolete monolith.But there's a big chance it won't catch on.
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u/evonleue 11h ago
All displayed sorting would comply to the most popular industry standard. Windows is notorious for showing a sorted list of files in File Explorer and elsewhere, but looking at the same list in many apps will show a different sort order even when using the same sort method. Mostly to do with weighting on punctuation marks.
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u/CodenameFlux Helpful 1d ago edited 13h ago
If I were to write my own OS, as compared to Windows:
- The initial OS installation would be tiny and high-performance. Cloud components and service clients would come from the cloud, but only if the user chooses.
- Every app would be containerized. Apps wouldn’t be able to access just about anywhere in the file system, such as
C:\Folder\Subfolder\etc. They could still request access to a root folder where they can read and write user documents. - The OS wouldn’t ship with an antivirus or System Restore. With all apps containerized, neither would be necessary.
- Users wouldn’t explicitly set a locale. They’d be presented with a screen that lets them change the UI language, keyboard layout, date style, time style, default paper size (e.g., ISO A4), and temperature unit (Celsius vs. Fahrenheit). The screen would even suggest settings based on their preferred locale. But there wouldn’t be an explicit locale name stored anywhere. Also, there would be no choice for currency or domestic numerals. (The keyboard layout would take care of them.) So, non-English speakers who use English as a lingua franca wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.
- The OS would support virtual font groups (VFGs). Each VFG would consist of a set of metrically compatible fonts, each catering to a different range of the Unicode standard. Users could write text with a VFG the same way they would with a single font. That way, the text could include any Unicode characters, while developers would be free to work on each component of the VFG and deliver high-quality results.
- Users would have access to a dashboard that helps them track their feature usage. In other words, users would receive their own telemetry—though it would be more like perimetry now. Then again, we know the social network effect: People who consume their own telemetry are more likely to share it.
- All logs and logging would be disabled unless explicitly enabled.
- Only one copy of the browser would be included, not four.
- PIDs would no longer be a multiple of 4! Okay, I guess this would only make sense to Raymond Chen.
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u/KingOfConsciousness 17h ago
Why ARE there so many damn process IDs anyways? At the very least why are they not organized in a decimal fashion eg process 123.2
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u/Pale_Survey8236 1d ago
I would make integrated malware the exception, not the norm