Donate to LikeOS
Help an operating system built from scratch reach more computers — and grow from one developer into a team.
Donate with PayPal
Any amount helps. You can give once with PayPal or a debit or credit card — no account needed.
Or use the direct link: paypal.com/donate → LikeOS
Why your donation matters
LikeOS has grown from a kernel that printed text on the screen into an operating system with a graphical desktop, GPU acceleration on Intel graphics and a web browser that runs Google Maps, web shops and AI chat. All of that was built by one developer, on his own time and with his own money.
To take the next steps — supporting far more computers, and producing a polished major release that anyone can download and install — LikeOS needs two things that only money can buy: hardware and people.
Where the money goes
Test hardware
A driver can only be written and tested on the device it drives. LikeOS runs today on a ThinkPad P50 and a Dell Pro 16 Plus. Every additional notebook, desktop board, graphics generation, network card and storage device that is bought becomes a machine LikeOS is tested on — and soon one it supports.
A paid development team
The long-term goal is to turn LikeOS from a one-person project into a small paid team: driver developers, a kernel engineer, someone for testing and releases. A team can work on several fronts at once — and finish them years sooner.
Drivers LikeOS still needs
Today LikeOS starts from a USB stick and has no driver for NVMe or SATA drives, for sound or for wireless networking yet. Each of these needs real devices on the desk and weeks of focused work — exactly what donations fund.
The first major release
Pre-built images are not offered yet; they will be published with the first major release. Donations shorten the way there: more hardware tested, more bugs fixed, and a release that installs and runs on more of the computers people actually own.
What a donation can pay for
Examples, to give an idea of what each amount turns into:
What you get in return
- A free operating system that stays free. LikeOS is released under the GNU GPL version 2. Everything your donation helps to build belongs to everyone, forever.
- Visible progress. Every piece of hardware bought is a machine LikeOS is tested on; every new driver shows up in the source on GitHub and in the screenshots on this site.
- Downloadable images, sooner. Your support brings the first major release — with ready-to-use images — closer.
- A say in what comes next. Add a note to your donation saying which hardware or feature you would like LikeOS to support, and it will be heard.
- The satisfaction of backing something rare: an operating system written from scratch that people can actually use.
Questions
How does the donation work?
Donations are processed by PayPal. You can pay with a PayPal account or with a debit or credit card; LikeOS never sees your payment details. After the donation PayPal returns you to this site.
Who receives the money?
Donations go to Nikolaos Rangos, the author of LikeOS, and are used for the project: hardware, development time and infrastructure.
I would like to sponsor something bigger.
For sponsoring a piece of hardware, a driver or development time directly, please write to niko@systemtrap.com.
I cannot donate — how else can I help?
Tell others about LikeOS, try it on your own hardware following the Running guide, and report what works and what does not.