WexOS

Building a place where web technologies are reliable

A research report by the WexCore Team

Disclaimer

WexOS is currently postponed and awaiting the release of OneCoreOS.

This report primarily discusses WexCore, an experimental platform that ran WexOS on top of OneCore Linux.

This document was written by the former WexCore Team, which has since been merged into the Experience Design Team. This team is now responsible for the global design language across all OneCore experiences, including this website.

Why build an operating system using web technologies?

For many years, web technologies have been associated with poorly optimized products and excessive resource usage.

With WexOS, our goal was to challenge that perception by designing a fully web‑exclusive operating system that treats the web as a first‑class platform rather than a compromise.

WexOS aims to deliver performant web experiences on low‑end devices by unifying applications and the system under a single, coherent runtime.

How does it work?

WexOS is designed to run on top of OneCoreOS. Its earliest incarnation was an extension of OneCore Linux known as WexCore.

During development, WexCore revealed several limitations with this approach, primarily around performance and scalability. Despite these constraints, WexCore was stable enough to serve as a working prototype in 2024 and introduced an early virtual application runtime.

The overall architecture was structured into clear layers:

• OneCore Linux (Layer 0)

  A custom WexCore edition of OneCore Linux provided the base system, bootstrapped using a self‑hosting initialization script.

• X11 WebShell (Layer 1)

  A lightweight X11 server launched alongside a custom shell named WebShell, powered by WebKit.

  This layer enabled a smooth transition toward the WexOS Framework.

• WexOS Framework (Layer 2)

  Core windowing and application APIs were initialized at this stage.

  No theming or experience layer was applied yet.

• Experience Shell (Layer 3)

  The complete experience layer was loaded, including design, shell, and interaction models.

  At this stage, the system became fully web‑exclusive.

Demonstration

As WexOS is currently on hold pending a stable OneCoreOS release, the following demonstrations highlight earlier prototype builds.

The first image shows the initial WexCore prototype.

This early build featured a minimal shell with only basic windowing capabilities.

Later iterations introduced a new theming layer called Carbon, significantly improving the visual identity of WexCore.

Carbon has continued to evolve over time and is now used by the official OneCore website as well.

The next image showcases a later demonstration build.

This build demonstrates Visual Studio Code and a File Explorer running within the Carbon design system.

These prototypes show that WexOS can be a capable operating system when given the opportunity, offering a strong balance between performance and design for web‑based environments.

WexOS after OneCoreOS?

The future is always evolving, but we believe WexOS still has a place within it.

OneCoreOS represents a major innovation on its own, yet innovation does not have to exist in isolation. With WexOS, we envision a future where both platforms coexist to deliver a seamless, globally accessible experience.

This concludes our story for now. We hope to revisit WexOS once a new WexOS Team is formed.

Thank you for taking the time to explore our work. We hope to one day share WexOS with you directly.

Signed, the WexCore Team.