About VitruvianOS

What is VitruvianOS?

VitruvianOS — also known as V\OS — is an operating system with the human at the center. Built on Linux and inspired by BeOS, it brings the elegance and simplicity of a classic operating system to modern hardware — without sacrificing the power and hardware support that Linux provides.

Custom-built kernel modules and real-time patches deliver a responsive, low-latency desktop experience. The BeOS/Haiku API is supported on Linux with minimal to no changes required to application source code.

Philosophy

  • Fast and reactive — Minimal latency from input to response. No bloat, no unnecessary services competing for your attention.
  • Highly integrated — The Vitruvian desktop, applications, and system services are designed to work as a coherent whole.
  • It’s your computer — No telemetry, no hidden agendas. V\OS doesn’t work against you.
  • KISS — Simple by design. Anyone can feel at home quickly.
  • Out of the box — Sensible defaults. Everything works without configuration.

Technical Foundation

The reference boot filesystems are XFS and SquashFS, both with full extended attribute support — XFS for standard desktop installs, SquashFS for live images and embedded targets. Ext4 and most other Linux filesystems with extended attribute support also work. The default kernel ships with real-time patches (PREEMPT_RT) for a genuinely responsive desktop; non-RT kernels are also supported. Filesystem indexing, live queries, and multiuser support with graphical login are on the roadmap.

Nexus

At the heart of VitruvianOS is Nexus, a set of custom Linux kernel modules that bridge Linux with the BeOS/Haiku runtime. Nexus implements the BeOS node monitor API (filesystem event notifications), device and volume tracking, and a messaging bridge that routes kernel events to the BeOS messaging infrastructure in userspace. It is what makes it possible to run unmodified BeOS/Haiku application source code on Linux.

License

VitruvianOS is released under a hybrid GPL/MIT license. It is completely free of cost and fully open source.

Community