CopyCat OS
A whole operating system, not a theme parked on someone else’s desktop.
Classic desktop paradigm: global menu bar, spatial windows, chrome the system owns. Touch-first, so the same desktop works with thumbs or a cursor, handheld or desk. Gaming is a first-class job of the compositor, not a mode that throws the computer away.
The design language is the classic Aqua-era desktop — inspired by Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with our own authored assets. Not a clone. Not Apple’s marks. A computer you own, and should be able to trust.
Status. This is the architecture we are building toward an installable desktop. Get notified when there is something to try. Do not expect a download button that ships a finished operating system today — there isn’t one.
DisplayComp
A new compositor, for the future of this desktop.
DisplayComp is our compositor and window manager. It is written in C++. It is the display server: it is the direct rendering manager master, it owns window chrome on the server side — title bars, traffic lights, shadows — and applications draw into their content. Native CopyCat is a DisplayComp client.
- Built so input and the hardware cursor keep moving when compose is busy.
- Game frames are not supposed to travel through the user-interface toolkit to reach the screen.
- Games and third-party applications run in a nested Wayland island. Steam, Proton, and ordinary Linux applications can exist without becoming the compositor’s native tongue.
- We used to sit on a wlroots compositor named MoonRock. That chapter taught us the desktop. DisplayComp is the foundation now.
This is the architecture. It is not a public binary you can install from a package manager today.
MoonBase
The ABI framework applications are written against.
MoonBase is the application framework. Implementation is C++. The public surface is a C application binary interface so it can freeze: applications and language bindings target a stable call, not a moving C++ layout.
- The operating system provides MoonBase. Applications do not vendor a private copy.
- A library each application links — not a host process that tabs every application into one address space. A crash in one application is not allowed to take the shell with it.
- Windows, widgets, sandbox, theming: that is the framework’s job. Applications do not paint their own window chrome.
- The MoonBase Gallery is the design-language bible we author against, so the classic desktop stays one language.
There is no public SDK zip. This is the framework call, in progress.
CopyCat.apps
An application you can hold.
A CopyCat.app is a single bundle. Copy it. Share it. Drag it to the desktop. Delete the file and the application is gone. No package manager for that step. No installer wizard. The file is the application.
That is the idea, and it is the direction of the tree: a bundle with code, data, and a manifest, launched as its own process against MoonBase. The format, the launcher, and the story on a foreign host are being built. You cannot download a catalog of them today.
Windows games on a real desktop
Full-featured Windows gaming — then back to your files and windows.
The compositor is being built so Windows games can run on this desktop: Steam, Proton, ordinary Windows titles through the guest path. Then you come back to a real desktop. Not a kiosk that forgets you have a computer.
Touch is first-class in the shell. Thumbs and a cursor. Handheld or desk. Same desktop, not a separate toy mode.
This is a goal with architecture behind it, not a store page of certified titles.
Shop
Merch for the work. Not a preorder of the operating system.
The shop lives at copycatos.com/shop. A shirt supports the work. Checkout waits on Stripe keys — browsing does not.
Forums
A public board for people following the work.
The forum lives at forum.copycatos.com. It is for discussion of CopyCat OS, DisplayComp, MoonBase, and CopyCat.apps — not a support contract, not a beta key dispenser, not a substitute for an install image we do not have yet.
If that hostname is not answering, the board is not live. We will not pretend a community exists that does not.
Donate to the cause
A gift to the work. Not a preorder. Not equity. Not a vote.
CopyCat OS is built in the open of this site, not as a finished product you can buy. If you want to put money toward it, you can donate here, or buy a shirt from the shop — shirts are merchandise, donations are gifts.
A donation is a gift to the work. Shirts are merchandise at copycatos.com/shop.
Get notified.
One email when there is something to try. Not a newsletter mill. Not a claim that a build is ready today.