There are lots of indie/hobbyist OSes, but they rarely contain striking interface ideas. One theory: it's a money-hole, so authors are mostly solo; a solo eng can ship an OS but usually can't design good novel UIs; a solo designer can't ship an OS; a collab will be ^2 rare. But:
Conversation
What about indie film directors? There are lots of super-low-budget projects which have striking and artistic ideas as well as impressive technical know-how.
And: what about indie video games? Lots of great games have art, design, eng—even music!—done by 1 person.
Why the diff?
9
1
46
When I think of novel OSes expressing unusual UI ideas, designed and actually built by the same person, the contemporary projects that come to mind are Dynamicland and 's Playbit. Please name others if you know them!
8
3
51
How are you having access to see PlayBit's interface design? Is there a private beta in progress?
1
4
Oh, my comment's just based on the intermittent images Rasmus has tweeted!