BootROM · —
Bare machine code, no OS. A hand-written 16-bit boot sector made for this project. An x86 machine running real code with no operating system at all. Bundled — boots offline.
OS museum
58 operating systems, by year
From Unix V7 and DOS to Haiku, SerenityOS and Android: every system in the TempMV catalog, in the order it appeared. Each one is a real disk image that boots on an emulated x86 PC inside your browser — no install, no account. All of them are free to use.
Other
1970s
Unix V7 · 1979
Bell Labs UNIX, 1979. Seventh Edition UNIX — the release that spread UNIX beyond Bell Labs and defined the shell, the C library and the tools we still type today. Ported to x86, in your browser.
1980s
MS-DOS 4.00 · 1988
The DOS Microsoft open-sourced. MS-DOS 4.00, whose source code Microsoft released under the MIT licence in 2024. Boots from a floppy to the classic A:\> prompt — a piece of computing history that is now, officially, free software.
1990s
FreeDOS · 1998
The good old C:\>. A complete DOS command interpreter on a bootable floppy. Perfect for BATCH files, classic utilities and period games. Bundled — boots offline.
2000s
Oberon · 2000
Niklaus Wirth's system, native on x86. Native Oberon, ETH Zürich's port of the Oberon System to PC hardware, with its peculiar tiled text interface where any word on screen can be a command. A fascinating academic system from the school of the creator of Pascal.
KolibriOS · 2004
A whole desktop in 1.4 MB. A graphical system written entirely in assembly. Boots to a desktop with windows, games and utilities in under a second. Bundled — boots offline.
NewOS · 2004
The kernel that grew into Haiku's. NewOS, Travis Geiselbrecht's hobby kernel from which Haiku's kernel was forked. Boots into a small windowing system with a shell in a window.
X on a floppy · 2006
Linux and an X desktop in 2 MB. xwoaf (X Window On A Floppy): a Linux kernel, BusyBox and a tiny X server with a window manager and a handful of X programs, squeezed into 2 MB. The keyboard-layout question at boot is answered with US for you; the desktop follows.
House · 2008
An operating system written in Haskell. House (hOp): an operating system whose kernel is written in Haskell, a purely functional language. Boots from a floppy into a functional-programming environment running on bare metal.
2010s
Sanos · 2011
A minimal kernel built to run Java. Sanos, a tiny research kernel designed to run server applications — famously the JVM — with the smallest OS underneath it that will do the job.
Damn Small Linux · 2012
A desktop on a business-card CD. Damn Small Linux: a complete graphical Linux that famously fit in 50 MB, with a window manager, a browser and a surprising pile of tools. Boots to a lightweight desktop.
Android-x86 4.4 · 2014
KitKat's touch UI, in a tab. The community Android-x86 port of Android 4.4 KitKat, in a build for CPUs without SSSE3, which is what lets it run here. Boots to the tablet home screen with the launcher, settings, browser, gallery and terminal. A live session: nothing is saved, and there are no Google apps or Play Store. Allow a couple of minutes to boot; the boot menu is answered for you.
MikeOS · 2014
16-bit assembly, for learning. MikeOS, a tiny 16-bit operating system written in assembly with the explicit goal of teaching how an OS works under the hood. Every line is meant to be read.
MINIX 3 · 2014
The teaching OS that started Linux. MINIX 3, Andrew Tanenbaum's microkernel UNIX — the system Linus Torvalds was using when he decided to write his own. A self-healing design where drivers run as ordinary processes.
Linux · 2018
A real POSIX shell. A tiny console Linux that boots straight to a command interpreter. Explore the filesystem, run binaries, and poke around like in a real terminal. Bundled — boots offline, instantly.
Linux Lab · 2018
The classroom machine for the Linux course. The practice machine for the 100-lesson Linux course: a small console Linux (BusyBox, Linux 4.16) with every command the lessons use: ls, grep, find, chmod, ps, tar, vi and friends. You are root, the filesystem lives in RAM, and nothing you break survives a reboot. Bundled, so it boots offline and instantly.
NodeOS · 2018
Linux where the userland is Node.js. A Linux kernel whose entire userland is Node.js: npm is the package manager and JavaScript is the shell. A genuinely odd, genuinely working idea — booted straight from the kernel image.
FreeNOS · 2019
A teaching microkernel OS. FreeNOS, a small experimental microkernel operating system written specifically for learning OS internals. Small enough to read end to end.
Soso · 2019
A small Unix-like kernel with a GUI. Soso, a compact hobby kernel written for clarity, with virtual terminals, a window system and enough UNIX behaviour to feel familiar.
Ubuntu Desktop 16.04 · 2019
The classic Unity desktop. Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS desktop with Unity, the last 32-bit Ubuntu desktop release. Boots a live session ("Try Ubuntu"). Very heavy for an emulated PC: good for a look around, slow for real work.
Ubuntu Server 16.04 · 2019
The lightest Ubuntu: text mode, no desktop. Ubuntu Server 16.04.6 LTS, the last Ubuntu Server built for 32-bit PCs. Boots the text-mode installer: pick a language and walk through the same setup used on real servers (network, mirror, packages). The image is large, so some steps take a few minutes in the browser; the hardware detection screens are a good place to learn how an installer works.
2020s
9legacy · 2020
Plan 9 from Bell Labs. 9legacy, a maintained distribution of the original Plan 9 — the gloriously strange research OS built by the people who wrote UNIX, as their answer to UNIX.
Lubuntu 18.04 · 2020
Ubuntu with the lightweight LXDE desktop. Lubuntu 18.04.5 LTS, the lightest official Ubuntu flavour with a desktop. Choose "Try Lubuntu" to boot a live LXDE desktop with a file manager, terminal and browser, no install needed. Give it the full 1 GB of RAM and some patience: a whole desktop is being emulated inside your browser.
Skift · 2020
A pretty little hobby OS. SkiftOS, a charming from-scratch operating system with a clean, modern-looking graphical shell that proves a hobby OS doesn't have to look like 1994.
Sortix · 2020
A small self-hosting Unix. Sortix, a from-scratch Unix-like system complete enough to compile itself. Boots to a root shell with a real toolchain on board. Be patient: GRUB loads the whole system and its ports from the CD first, which takes several minutes in the emulator.
Tiny Core · 2020
Graphical Linux in a blink. A tiny Linux distribution with a desktop. Boots entirely into RAM from a CD, so it feels quick once it's up, and its package manager can pull extensions on the fly.
Ubuntu MATE 18.04 · 2020
Ubuntu with the traditional MATE desktop. Ubuntu MATE 18.04.5 LTS, the GNOME 2-style desktop many people remember. Boots a live session. One of the heaviest images in the catalog: it works, but loading takes a while.
Xubuntu 18.04 · 2020
Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop. Xubuntu 18.04.5 LTS: Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop, a classic panel-and-menu layout. Boots a live session ("Try Xubuntu"). Heavier than Lubuntu, so expect slow screens while it loads.
Buildroot · 2021
A kernel + busybox, booted raw. A tiny Buildroot system: a real Linux kernel (bzImage) booted directly with an editable command line — no bootloader, no disk. The closest thing to watching Linux start from nothing. Writes to the serial console.
GentleOS · 2021
A tiny 32-bit desktop with a side dock. GentleOS, a minimal 32-bit graphical system in the style of early-90s desktops: a dock of little programs (clock, calendar, calculator, character map, paint) on a teal background, all in 8 MB.
ToaruOS · 2021
A from-scratch Unix-like desktop. ToaruOS, a hand-built hobby OS with its own kernel, compositor and graphical desktop — window decorations, a terminal, a file manager and even a few games, all written by one person.
Asuro · 2023
A windowed hobby OS written in Pascal. Asuro, a hobby operating system written in Free Pascal, booting straight to a windowed desktop with its own terminal. It brings up its network card and asks for an address over DHCP on its own.
Devuan 5 · 2023
Debian without systemd. Devuan 5.0.1 "Daedalus", a Debian fork that lets you choose your init system (sysvinit, OpenRC, runit). Boots the network installer.
FreeBSD · 2023
The serious BSD, resumed instantly. A full FreeBSD install on a 2 GB disk, resumed from a pre-booted snapshot so you get a login prompt in seconds. The real thing: ports, rc scripts, the FreeBSD userland and its documentation-first culture.
HelenOS · 2023
A microkernel multiserver OS. HelenOS, a research microkernel OS with a graphical desktop and a genuinely different architecture: every service is an isolated process, so a crashing driver takes nothing else down.
Linux Mint LMDE 6 · 2023
Linux Mint on a Debian base, with Cinnamon. Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 "Faye", the 32-bit Linux Mint, with the Cinnamon desktop. Boots a live session. The heaviest image in the catalog: expect long waits; best on a fast computer.
NetBSD · 2023
The BSD that runs on everything. NetBSD, built around the idea that one clean codebase should run on every machine ever made — from toasters to mainframes. Here it is on emulated x86, streamed from a 500 MB disk.
OpenBSD · 2023
Security-obsessed UNIX, ready to go. OpenBSD, the project that gave the world OpenSSH and a famously unforgiving attitude to insecure code. Resumed from a snapshot straight to a shell on a 1 GB disk.
SerenityOS · 2023
A 90s desktop, built from nothing in public. SerenityOS: a complete graphical operating system — kernel, compiler, browser, IDE and all — written from scratch on video, with the look of late-90s Unix workstations and none of the code. Resumed from a snapshot.
Tilck · 2023
A tiny Linux-compatible kernel. Tilck is a small, educational kernel that is binary-compatible with Linux: it runs unmodified Linux programs on a codebase small enough to actually read. A rare chance to see how little a working kernel needs to be.
9front · 2024
Plan 9, alive and maintained. 9front, the actively developed fork of Plan 9 from Bell Labs — the research OS where everything really is a file, the window system is a filesystem, and the network is the computer. Resumed from a snapshot.
Arch Linux · 2024
A full distro, with pacman and a compiler. A real Arch Linux with bash, coreutils, python, gcc and pacman, served over a 9p filesystem so only the files you actually touch get downloaded. Resumes from a pre-booted snapshot: you land on a login shell in seconds instead of waiting out a full boot.
BleskOS · 2024
A from-scratch desktop in under 2 MB. BleskOS, a one-person operating system written in assembly with its own graphical shell: a text editor, a graphic editor, a document viewer, a calculator and a file manager, all keyboard-driven. The boot menu is answered for you; it then draws its desktop at a very high resolution, so zoom out if the text looks tiny.
Debian 11 live · 2024
A full Debian system in text mode. Debian 11.11 "bullseye" live, standard edition: boots straight into a working Debian with apt, bash and the usual tools, no install. Log in as user / live if asked; sudo works without a password.
Debian 11 LXDE · 2024
Debian live with a lightweight desktop. Debian 11.11 live with the LXDE desktop. Boots a graphical session (user / live). Large image: allow a few minutes for the desktop to appear.
Dusk OS · 2024
A Forth that bootstraps a C compiler. Dusk OS, a 32-bit Forth operating system built to survive the collapse of the supply chain: tiny, self-hosting, and able to compile C from source. Boots straight to the Forth prompt — try 6 7 * . and press Return.
ELKS · 2024
Linux for 16-bit machines. Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset: a Linux-like system rebuilt for 8086-class hardware, where the whole OS lives in a handful of kilobytes. Multitasking UNIX on a processor from 1978.
Haiku · 2024
The spiritual successor to BeOS. Haiku is a modern, genuinely polished desktop OS that continues where BeOS left off: a unified design, a database-backed filesystem, and a responsiveness that still embarrasses much bigger systems. Resumes from a snapshot straight onto the desktop.
Kali Linux installer · 2024
The security-testing distribution. Kali Linux 2024.3, the last release with 32-bit images: the network installer of the penetration-testing distribution. For learning and authorised testing only. It downloads packages during the install, so it needs a working network connection.
ReactOS · 2024
A free OS that runs Windows software. ReactOS is an open-source operating system built from scratch to be binary-compatible with Windows: same driver model, same application interface, none of the licensing. It boots to a familiar desktop with Explorer, a control panel and a start menu — resumed from a snapshot, so it's up in seconds. The desktop comes with free extras (WinSCP, Vim, Bochs, OpenTTD, LBreakout2, FreeBASIC); the CPU-Z, HxD and OllyDbg shortcuts are left over from the upstream image and do nothing, because those closed tools aren't redistributable here.
Redox OS · 2024
A whole OS written in Rust. Redox is a microkernel operating system written entirely in Rust, with its own filesystem, its own libc and a graphical desktop — a serious attempt at answering what UNIX would look like if you started today, memory-safe from the boot code up.
SliTaz · 2024
A full GNU/Linux desktop in 50 MB. SliTaz, a featherweight rolling-release Linux that boots a complete graphical desktop — window manager, file manager, browser and text editor — from a tiny live CD.
Void Linux · 2025
Independent distro with runit and xbps. Void Linux (i686, February 2025), an independent rolling distribution with the runit init system and the xbps package manager. Boots a live console; log in as root / voidlinux (or anon / voidlinux).
Alpine Linux · 2026
The small, security-minded distro. Alpine Linux 3.24 (virt edition), the musl + BusyBox distribution that most container images are built on. Boots from the live CD to a login prompt: log in as root (no password), then run setup-interfaces -a and ifup eth0 to get a network address.
Alpine Linux extended · 2026
Alpine with the most common packages on the CD. Alpine Linux 3.24 extended edition: the live CD with the most common packages included, so you can install software without network access. Log in as root with no password.
Alpine Linux standard · 2026
Alpine with the full base system. Alpine Linux 3.24 standard edition: the complete base system on the live CD (more drivers and packages than the virt edition). Log in as root with no password, then run setup-alpine to configure it.
Debian 12 installer · 2026
The universal OS, last 32-bit release. Debian 12.15 "bookworm", the last Debian with a 32-bit installer. Boots the official installer (text or graphical): the best way to see how a Debian system is put together, step by step.
Gentoo · 2026
Build your own Linux from source. Gentoo minimal install CD (x86, October 2026): boots a root shell with the tools to install Gentoo by hand, following the Gentoo Handbook. Great for learning how a Linux system is assembled.