Building an independent 64-bit desktop OS from scratch — KeshOS progress & architecture

Hey everyone, Our small indie team (SneakDeak) has been building KeshOS — an independent 64-bit desktop operating system developed from scratch (no Linux distro or wrappers underneath). Our goal is to give aging 2011–2016 hardware (2–4 GB RAM) a genuine second life with a lightweight, responsive desktop environment without modern OS bloat. ### What is currently working: Boot: Pure x86_64 UEFI boot via Limine with GPT partition layout. Kernel & Userland: Monolithic C/ASM kernel in Ring 0 with 4-level paging (PML4). User apps run strictly isolated in Ring 3. Compositor & GUI: Custom C++ window compositor rendering directly to a double-buffered linear framebuffer (UEFI GOP). We currently have a working native Paint app running in Ring 3 with full mouse event handling. Networking: Core network stack is alive in the kernel (ARP, ICMP ping, and DNS queries resolve properly). ### Transparency on AI / "Vibecoding": To be completely upfront: around ~20% of the project involves AI assistance for boilerplate generation, scaffolding, and UI layout math. However, the low-level systems programming — memory management, page tables, IPC dispatching, network packets, and hardware interfacing — is manually written, debugged, and built to run. ### Next Steps & RC1: We are currently working on filesystem persistence (Ext2/Ext4), our native ELF64 container format (.kea), package management (kpm), and polishing our upcoming Release Candidate 1 (RC1) ISO. If you are interested in low-level dev, want to test the upcoming RC1 build, or track our devlogs: Discord: discord.gg/YgMe7ekA5y Subreddit: Any feedback, suggestions, or technical critique are welcome :)