NebulaOS

A Linux desktop environment built around a custom compositor, shell, and service stack.

Structure

Path	Purpose
core/nebula-core	Core runtime and platform APIs (growing)
core/applications	Installed .desktop discovery and launching
compositor/	Compositor configuration (Sway is temporary)
shells/	Desktop and future Bigscreen shells
packages/	Shared UI (Nebula.UI), icons, API, and design tokens
services/	System services (audio, network, bluetooth, power, accounts)
session/	Session manager and desktop entry
packaging/	Distribution packaging (Ubuntu)
branding/	Boot assets, wallpapers, and sounds
scripts/	Development helpers (including the VMware shell wrapper)

Shells

Nebula Desktop 0.1 is a C++20 Qt Quick/QML Wayland shell using LayerShellQt. It can discover installed applications and launch them (including Foot) from the GUI. See shells/desktop/.

Nebula Bigscreen is planned as a separate Qt Quick/QML shell with a controller-first interaction model, sharing Nebula.UI and Nebula.Applications.

Standalone Nebula applications may still use React/Tauri where that is a better fit. The operating-system shell does not.

An archived React desktop prototype lives in shells/desktop/prototype-react/ as a design reference only.

Current stack

Ubuntu
 ↓
Wayland
 ↓
Sway          temporary compositor
 ↓
Nebula Shell  Qt Quick/QML

Applications and games render on their own Wayland/XWayland paths. They are not composited inside QML.

Getting started (development VM)

cd shells/desktop/shell
rm -rf build
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j$(nproc)

Then, from the repository root:

./compositor/sway/dev/run-sway-vm.sh

or:

sway -c compositor/sway/nebula-sway.conf

The VMware wrapper sets QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software. Production nebula-shell does not. Details: shells/desktop/README.md and compositor/README.md.

The Qt shell must be compiled on Linux (the Ubuntu NebulaOS VM). It will not build on Windows.