Tech & AI > jackalOS
The jackalOS vision
Your device. Your rules.
jackalOS began with a simple idea: what if an older smartphone could be given an entirely new purpose, free from unnecessary software, restrictive ecosystems and the limitations imposed by its original manufacturer?
01 / Purpose
What started as an experiment in reclaiming hardware has grown into an ambitious personal project: developing an original operating system, built from the foundations upward.
The goal isn't simply to make Android look different. It's to explore what an independently developed operating system could become when efficiency, transparency, personal freedom and user control are its guiding principles.
02 / Why this exists
So much of modern technology seems to arrive with conditions attached: another account to create, another subscription to consider, another ecosystem expecting you to stay inside its walls.
And before you've installed anything of your own, a substantial part of your advertised storage can already be occupied by the operating system, bundled software and apps you never asked for. Sometimes manufacturers include partner apps, even ones from social platforms like Facebook, that you can't properly uninstall.
I don't want my device making those decisions for me. I want the freedom to choose the software it runs, the services it keeps, the resources it uses and what, if anything, it shares.
Give me my device back.
And if that works, give you yours back too.
That's the idea behind jackalOS: begin by reclaiming a device for myself, build something genuinely useful, and, if it succeeds, explore what that freedom could offer others.
03 / Principles
Efficiency shouldn't mean sacrificing appearance, functionality or personality.
jackalOS aims to combine minimal resource usage with an elegant, responsive interface and deep customisation.
Simple enough to enjoy every day. Sophisticated enough to explore, configure and understand what's happening beneath the surface.
No unnecessary accounts. No forced ecosystem membership. No artificial restrictions where they can reasonably be avoided.
jackalOS is being designed around clear defaults, accessible advanced controls and decisions that mean what they say. Protection should explain itself. Recovery should be available without becoming compulsory. A deliberate choice should be remembered—not repeatedly challenged or quietly reversed.
The aim is to give the owner useful information, practical tools and room to experiment, without turning ordinary operation into a sequence of warnings and permission requests.
Diagnostics for understanding the system—not profiling its owner.
During private development, jackalOS records technical events to help explain failures, investigate resource use and verify fixes. The intended reporting experience brings the relevant evidence together automatically, without making the owner reconstruct a problem from screenshots.
Local diagnostic capture and sending a report are separate actions. Detailed development reports are private technical records, not assumed to be anonymous. Any future optional anonymised reporting must have verified de-identification and clear controls; declining to share must not reduce functionality.
No advertising profiles. No sale of personal data. No requirement to submit a report in order to use the operating system.
04 / Possibilities
At its heart, jackalOS is about giving capable hardware new possibilities.
An everyday device. A dedicated home controller. A personal computing environment. A platform for applications, services and experiments that haven't even been imagined yet.
Rather than deciding in advance what a device must be, the ambition is to provide the foundations and freedom to explore what it could be.
05 / A second life
That old handset doesn't have to spend the rest of its life gathering dust. The hope is to make jackalOS a useful playground for a spare device, with room for purposes beyond ordinary calls and messages.
Give an unused phone a place in the home as a touch-friendly controller for lights, speakers and routines, as the planned jackalHome integrations become real.
A future parent-configured space, limited to applications approved during setup. No access to Settings, payments, installing or removing apps, built-in jackalOS family tools, social media or the web browser. Because an unexpected A$1,000 in Robux isn't anyone's idea of family fun. 👀
These are design goals, not working controls. Content limits and purchase blocking would need real OS-level enforcement and testing before anybody relies on them.
Try new applications, test ideas and explore local tools or small services without experimenting on the phone you depend on every day.
Imagine a dedicated music controller, an information display or a small always-visible dashboard, subject to the hardware and software support we can build.
Planned · New-install setup
Official jackalOS boot logo → Language → Wi-Fi → Diagnostics → Device lock
The planned new-install setup covers the essentials without requiring an operating-system account. Choose a pattern, a 4–6 digit PIN or a passphrase for device access, then explore the deeper settings when you need them.
The first planned device unlock choices are straightforward. Pick the method that works for you, without having to sign in or create an account.
A recovery option is also on the roadmap. It will need a carefully designed, secure way for a legitimate owner to regain access without creating a shortcut around device protection. No unlock or recovery method is implemented yet.
06 / The ecosystem
These descriptions set out the design direction. The integrated applications and their user-facing controls are not yet implemented; the development infrastructure and kernel foundations are at different stages.
Understand the system. Choose its balance.
jackalControl is the planned built-in home for understanding and managing the device's resources: what is running, why it is running, what it costs and what can be changed.
It is intended to bring performance, memory, storage, battery, thermal, service and diagnostic information into one understandable place, with approachable presets and deeper configuration available when needed.
Everyday power control centres on a simple three-position slider: Low power, Default and High performance. Low power prioritises battery life; the centre position provides normal operation; High performance prioritises performance at the expense of battery life.
The same setting is accessible from jackalControl and the pull-down quick-settings panel. It snaps between the three modes, with both locations reflecting the active choice—no intermediate percentages or confirmation dialogue.
Quiet protection. Clear decisions.
jackalGuard is the planned built-in protection layer: lightweight, understandable and designed to handle routine security events without continually interrupting the owner. It is part of the OS vision, not a trial or third-party security subscription.
A readable security history explains what happened, what action was taken and why. Serious security risks receive clear attention, with choices expressed plainly: Allow once, Always allow or Block.
Allow once applies to that request. Always allow and Block remain in effect for their stated scope until the owner changes them. Those rules stay visible and editable, without automatic expiry or repeated questioning of the same decision.
Reversible containment is preferred. Permanent deletion requires explicit approval; age or storage pressure is not permission to silently erase quarantined files.
The wider protection vision includes application isolation, permission visibility, file and rule scanning, network protection and integrity checks. Each capability needs its own implementation and testing.
Protection should support ownership—not replace it.
The intention is to make bootloader state and supported unlock options clearly accessible inside jackalGuard. Any device-specific consequences, including a required data wipe, must be explained before an owner-confirmed change. jackalSync can offer an optional portable restore point first.
Availability depends on the device's actual bootloader support. Relocking is a separate compatibility-checked action—not an assumed safe reverse toggle—and a software backup cannot promise to undo every firmware or hardware-security change.
Recovery you can take with you.
jackalSync is the planned backup and recovery companion: capture a supported snapshot of the device's state, export it somewhere you control, and import it back into a compatible jackalOS installation when needed.
Keep the archive on a USB drive, a PC or another phone. No cloud service, internet connection or jackalOS account is required for this recovery route.
Before a factory reset or supported bootloader action, jackalSync can offer a restore point. Creating one remains the owner's choice—not an obstacle to proceeding. Major OS updates would not introduce an additional restore-point prompt; manual backup remains available whenever the owner chooses.
The intended snapshot goes beyond preferences to the supported software, application data, personal files and settings. Its contents and exclusions must be clear, and restoration must be tested before anyone relies on it.
Private development infrastructure supporting builds, testing, verification, packaging and future software releases—not a compulsory consumer cloud or a prerequisite for jackalSync's offline recovery.
An independent smart-home platform designed around intuitive controls, visual customisation and broad compatibility rather than manufacturer loyalty, with potential future integration into jackalOS.
jackalGuard protects. jackalControl manages resources. jackalSync provides recovery. They work together while keeping their responsibilities—and the owner's choices—clear.
View the approved logo familyPlanned · Diagnostic reporting experience
The planned reporting experience prepares the available technical context automatically: the OS and build version, device information, incident timing, relevant running applications and services, resource state and failure details. A readable summary accompanies the original technical evidence; optional owner notes add what the person noticed.
Reports can be requested on demand, offered after a serious failure, or archived when the diagnostic allocation approaches its limit. When a crash prevents immediate interaction, the aim is to offer retained evidence after a supported recovery. Reports should keep the original incident context, not replace it with the next boot's state.
Mainframe is the project's private vault for development archives and diagnostic reports. Its diagnostics area is already deployed; connecting the jackalOS device-side sender remains later work. The intended route is jackalOS → Mainframe → the owner's other device → debugging and verification.
Capture and storage are intended to remain bounded and configurable. When archiving to free local space, upload and verify the complete report before removing its corresponding local copy. Failed transfers stay available for retry.
Automatic preparation does not mean automatic sending. Sharing and any subsequent removal of the archived local copy remain owner-controlled actions.
07 / Development
The first experimental kernel foundation has reached its initial acceptance milestone.
Developed incrementally with Codex, the original ARM64 kernel now includes protected application execution, memory management, scheduling, inter-application communication, elapsed-time waits, resource accounting, controlled storage access and persistent diagnostic recovery.
Codex reports milestones M0–M17 complete, with the agreed emulator baseline ready for initial system-service experiments. The next stage is shaping the services and integrated tools that will turn those foundations into the jackalOS experience.
Development continues incrementally, with testing and recoverable milestones taking priority over premature feature claims.
A stage-by-stage map, not a completion percentage. Each stage represents a different amount of work; there is no fixed timeline.
Codex reports M0–M17 complete. The accepted experimental baseline runs in single-CPU QEMU with four protected application slots, ready for initial system-service experiments. This is the initial kernel foundation, not physical-device readiness or permanent kernel completeness.
Build on the tested kernel interfaces to develop usable services, general file access, device interfaces and native applications. Current design discussions include the distinct roles of jackalGuard, jackalControl and jackalSync.
Build a beautiful, lightweight launcher, Settings, input handling, accessibility and the first user-facing applications.
Investigate real boot and hardware support on the Exynos Galaxy S9+ (SM-G965F), with a recovery plan and careful on-device testing.
Harden stability, security, privacy and recovery; measure resource use; refine features before asking anyone else to rely on them.
Explore other models only where documentation, hardware support and practical testing make that feasible.
Only if the result is good enough, there's real interest and wider device support is viable. Not a launch announcement, and no preorders.
Milestone results are reported by the development workspace; public hardware support is not established. The next steps may change as engineering findings develop.
The Samsung Galaxy S9+ is the initial intended physical development target. jackalOS has not yet been deployed to the phone, and hardware compatibility remains future engineering work.
This is an evolving personal project, with no fixed completion deadline or announced public release.
08 / The future
For now, this remains a personal experiment, with no fixed completion deadline or announced public release.
If I'm happy with the finished product, there's genuine public interest, and device support expands beyond the original development handset, my intention is to offer jackalOS for a one-off A$9.99 (AUD).
No preorders. No reservations, advance purchases or payments for a future copy of jackalOS are being accepted. This is a possibility, not a release announcement or guarantee.
My existing PayPal profile is here if you'd like to support the creative work. It's entirely optional — not a jackalOS preorder, licence or purchase.
09 / Support & ideas
Have an idea for jackalOS, or something you'd like it to do differently? I'd love to hear it. A future release is planned to include Settings → Support → Feature Requests, alongside project contact details, without requiring a jackalOS account.
For now, you can reach me directly through this page:
Messages you choose to email are ordinary correspondence, not anonymous diagnostic reports. This page has no feature-request submission backend, user accounts or automatic diagnostic collection.