os8088 / A Graphical OS for the IBM PC/XT

The graphical desktop the IBM PC/XT never got

A Macintosh System 1-style desktop for the Intel 8086, written in real-mode assembly and booted from a floppy or live USB/CD. Overlapping windows, pull-down menus, a serial mouse, loadable programs, and pre-emptive multitasking.

Boot it in your browser Download the images
01

Try os8088

Spotlight / PiXEL on VESA
PiXEL displaying a Chicago skyline photograph in blue and orange on the 1024 by 768 os8088 desktop.

PiXEL on VESA QEMU capture at 1024x768.

Clear Skies QEMU capture from the flight simulator.

PaccMan QEMU capture from the C port.

Pixelstein 3D QEMU capture; full-screen VGA.

IBM 5150 Hercules display. Photograph by Elendilon.

FF7 Battle QEMU capture; prepared battle clips with live menus.

Toshiba T1100 Plus Photograph; CGA output on the built-in LCD.

Covox output QEMU capture of MIDI Rack routed to the LPT DAC.

Compaq Portable III Photograph; CGA output on the plasma display.

Book8088 Photograph; booted from CompactFlash as drive C:.

Live demo

Boot the live image in a browser-based PC emulator. Applications are on drive C:. Files saved in the demo last until you close the tab.

Boot it in your browser

Run it locally

QEMU and 86Box configurations, disk images and instructions for writing real media.

Boot instructions Releases & downloads
02

Software and features

The Wire running on the os8088 desktop, with CPU filters, a software list and a preview of Fractal.

The Wire

Packages, screenshots and companion files, filterable by recommended CPU. On a networked os8088 PC with ETHER.DRV attached, The Wire can load programs from the desktop.

Browse the software library

Spotlight

Implementation notes, test results and limits for individual programs and OS features.

All Spotlights
Windows Minesweeper in an os8088 window. Windows apps through WIN16NE loading and Windows API compatibility. MIDI Rack's playback window on os8088. Covox outputPlayback paths and the XT timing budget. A Greeter application built with Weave on the os8088 desktop. Weave & LoomDeclarative UI, event handlers and formulas.
Windows application gallery

Screenshots and test scope for original Windows executables.

03

Real hardware

IBM 5150 / Hercules display
An IBM 5151 green phosphor monitor displaying os8088 on an IBM 5150, with Note Pad, Task Manager and Minesweeper open.
IBM 5150 with a Hercules adapter, booted from a 360KB floppy. Photograph by Elendilon.

Machine reports

Photographs, configurations and notes from real machines. Filter by CPU and display to find a setup close to yours.

Browse all hardware
IBM 5150Hercules and CGA Toshiba T1100 Plus8086, CGA and a blue LCD Book 8088CompactFlash boot and a USB mouse
System requirements
04

Development

Video log

All videos

Recorded demos and development updates. Select a video to play it here.

Video log

Recorded demos and development updates are on the video log.

Documentation

Hardware support, disk contents, networking, the bootloader, memory layout and the application API.

Disk guideMemory mapFirst application

Developer guide

Toolchain setup with Claude Code or Codex, building and testing, application development and preparing a pull request.

Releases

Tagged builds, headline changes and links to the full notes and disk image downloads.

Source on GitHub

Kernel, applications, drivers, build tools and tests.