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AsteroidOS 2.0

Nobody asked, we shipped anyway

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Hi HN, After roughly 8 years of silently rolling 1.1 nightlies, we finally tagged a proper stable 2.0 release. We built this because wrist-sized Linux is genuinely fun to hack on, and because a handful of us think it's worth keeping capable hardware alive long after manufacturers move on. Smartwatches don't really get old — the silicon is basically the same as it was a decade ago. We just keep making it useful for us.No usage stats, no tracking, no illusions of mass adoption. The only real signal we get is the occasional person who appears in our Matrix chat going "hey, it booted on my watch from 2014 and now it's usable again" — and that's plenty.Privacy is non-negotiable: zero telemetry, no cloud, full local control. Longevity is the other half: we refuse to let good hardware become e-waste just because support ended. On the learning side, it's been one of the best playgrounds: instant feedback on your wrist makes QML/Qt, JavaScript watchfaces and embedded Linux feel tangible. The community is small and kind — perfect for people who want to learn open-source dev without gatekeeping.Technically we're still pragmatic: libhybris + older kernels on most devices since it just works, but we've already mainlined rinato (Samsung Gear 2) and sparrow (ASUS ZenWatch 2) — rinato even boots with a usable UI. That's the direction we're pushing toward.Repo: https://github.com/AsteroidOS Install images & docs: https://asteroidos.org 2.0 demo video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc Announcement post: https://asteroidos.org/news/2-0-release/Questions, port requests, mentoring offers, criticism, weird ideas — all welcome. We do this because shaping a tiny, open wearable UX and infrastructure is oddly satisfying, and because Linux on the wrist still feels like a playground worth playing in.Cheers, the AsteroidOS Team

HN · launched Feb 17, 2026 · 470 upvotes (top 1%) · 0 views

Niche: experimental and embedded operating systems · 142 launches, 6 in the last 7 days ▼ -60% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags

  • Horizontal
  • Hardware & robotics
  • Prosumer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

Could you build this?

No AsteroidOS is a custom open-source Linux operating system for smartwatches requiring deep embedded systems, board support packages (BSPs), device driver development, and kernel plumbing.

What it would actually take: Building an operating system for diverse wearable hardware requires an embedded Linux distribution using OpenEmbedded/Yocto, Wayland/Qt/QML for the compositor and UI, custom Bluetooth LE/HID stacks, and low-level hardware drivers (accelerometer, heart-rate PPG sensors, display power management). It necessitates deep expertise in Linux kernel internals, device tree configurations, power optimization for battery-constrained ARM chips, and hardware reverse-engineering.

Discussion

20 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Gadgetbridge, BangleJS, AsteroidOS, Fossil WatchOS

Concerns raised: Privacy concerns with smartwatches, WatchOS performance and functionality issues, Battery life impact from always-on display features, Limited color support in AoD mode on some watches (ASUS)

Feature requests: Dynamic watchface colors that change to fit outfit, Full color always-on display support

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 112 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #2 of 113 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 107 days after the earliest competitor.

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