Moxnox 1.0, a hobbyist operating system modeled on Windows NT's syscall design but POSIX-compatible, has been released for amd64 and aarch64 architectures. The roughly 130,000-line C++ project includes a GNU base system, can run on the Btrfs filesystem, and is mature enough to self-host, meaning it can compile itself. The developer notes the Btrfs implementation works for basic use but warns against mounting anything beyond disposable test filesystems.
github.com
· 2026-10-27
A research project called HackiOS, from a group identifying as OOSEX GANG, runs Apple's open-source XNU kernel alongside an unmodified iOS 16.5 user space on a POCO X5 Pro 5G Android phone and in QEMU emulation. The system boots entirely from RAM via fastboot without flashing the device, and reverts to Android on reboot; the project uses custom EFI/UEFI loaders and driver replacements rather than any Apple binaries, pulling IPSW files directly from Apple's CDN at runtime.
github.com
· 2026-10-22
Max Desiatov confirmed that the @c attribute can replace @_cdecl for declaring C functions in Swift, streamlining the process. An experiment was conducted to create a basic Swift kernel that outputs a message via QEMU and then halts, serving as an initial exploration into running Swift without an underlying OS. The project utilizes Embedded Swift, a subset designed for bare-metal environments, but encountered limitations due to the lack of a standard library in the current compiler.
carette.xyz
· 2026-10-06
A project called BootLife implements Conway's Game of Life entirely within a 512-byte x86 boot sector, using VGA memory to display the simulation grid. It's shared on GitHub as a Show HN post, built with NASM and runnable via QEMU, with source code and a Makefile provided for building and testing.
github.com
· 2026-09-21
A tester given preview access to GPT-5.6-Cyber challenged the AI agent to escape a QEMU/KVM virtual machine on a Debian Linux host. The model succeeded three separate times, first using recently disclosed kernel bugs, then unpatched vulnerabilities not yet flagged as security issues, and finally by discovering its own zero-day exploits after the system was rebuilt from the latest source code.
blog.trailofbits.com
· 2026-08-26
A new guide from cua-sandbox shows developers how to boot a Windows virtual machine, install Minecraft Java Edition inside it, and control the game using an AI agent connected through the cua-driver MCP server. The setup works both on a local QEMU-based sandbox and on the Fleet cloud service, requiring version 0.3.3 or later of cua-sandbox.
cua.ai
· 2026-08-25
Developer Daniel Palmer has written new patches for Linux's Tdfxfb driver that let the kernel initialize 3dfx Voodoo3 graphics cards even on systems lacking a standard BIOS, such as the Amiga 4000. Palmer used AI assistance to read data directly from the card's own BIOS to force it out of an 'unbooted' state and produce a video signal, and the code is set to ship in Linux 7.3. He is also extending the work toward Voodoo4/5 support and Voodoo3 emulation in QEMU.
techspot.com
· 2026-08-24
GoKawiil