The topic HamsterOS lets you run a full GUI OS off a 1.44MB floppy disk is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
The idea of an OS running off a floppy disk isn’t particularly new; in fact, I gave one a try a year and a half ago. However, not all of them are as cool or as cute as HamsterOS, a full-blown GUI-based operating system designed to run off the 1.44MB storage medium. For an operating system that runs off a long-dead data drive, HamsterOS certainly looks the part, and if you have a floppy disk lying around collecting dust, you can give it a spin in November.
As spotted by Hackaday, HamsterOS is a miniature OS that can run on older hardware. By the looks of things, it’s not a stripped-down version of Windows, or even a lightweight Linux distro; it seems to be its own thing, coded up in Assembly. Its main goal is to run on vintage hardware, including the i386, which makes it somewhat similar to GentleOS/16.
A complete 32-bit desktop OS on a single 1.44 MB floppy. The current master image boots through a trimmed FreeDOS wrapper, launches the 32-bit HamsterOS kernel with HAMLOAD.EXE, and runs a real windowed desktop on 386/486-era hardware. It can install or upgrade a bootable ATA hard disk from the floppy boot menu while keeping C: as a real DOS disk that auto-launches HamsterOS.
I’m not sure what’s better: the fact that it can run DOS, or that it launches using an executable called ‘HAMLOAD’. Either way, the developers are still ironing out the details, and we should see it released in November 2026. The progress tracking says that the project has gone far beyond the ‘will it boot’ phase and now has a desktop shell, apps, and even games bundled in. However, the devs want to give it that extra coat of paint before it’s publicly released.