Hi, thanks a lot. To answer your questions: > You're looking for an x86 (Intel/AMD) OS. Correct. > 32-bit or 64-bit? 64-bit - assume a relatively modern lap

Hi, thanks a lot. To answer your questions: > You're looking for an x86 (Intel/AMD) OS. Correct. > 32-bit or 64-bit? 64-bit - assume a relatively modern laptop as a target platform. But 32-bit is fine. I'm sure I wouldn't need >4GB of RAM for this sort of purpose. > Windows compatible or not? Nah, I'm thinking super simple. Like a web browser would be a luxury. I only mentioned Windows 3.1 as an example of an OS that's very simple and fast. > ReactOS I've seen it mentioned over the years, but never looked much into it. I'll have a better look. > You might try writing a program to implement GUI features on that non-GUI OS... it would be a great programming exercise! I am a programmer, though mostly in games. In this case I'd prefer something that works out of the box, though I do like your suggestion - I just already have a lot of projects and not a lot of free time. Searching for GUIs for non-GUI operating systems is an interesting idea as well. Someone else here also linked a big list of custom "hobby" operating systems[1], many of which are on GitHub. Running an OS - or a GUI for an OS - that's built by some random user on GitHub may not be the most sane option (I already see that a fair amount were last updated years ago) but I'm going to have a look around anyway. [1] https://wiki.osdev.org/Projects https://wiki.osdev.org/Projects