// mission log
One person.
One distro. No limits.
XyvorraOS started as a curiosity and turned into something that wouldn't let go. This is the story of how it happened, who's building it, and where it's headed — which is nowhere near done.
How it started.
I was taking a Linux LPI class. That's it — that's where it started. Not some grand plan, not a career goal. Just a class that cracked something open. The more I learned about how Linux actually worked under the hood, the less satisfied I was with just using it. I needed to know how it was built.
So I started building Linux from scratch. Not once — a few times. Each one taught me something the last one didn't. And somewhere in the middle of that process, a thought showed up and refused to leave: what if I built my own distro?
Not a fork of something that already existed. Not a reskin with a new wallpaper and a different name. Something that was mine from the ground up — my installer, my update system, my themes, my first-boot experience. I picked Arch as the base because Arch gets out of your way and lets you make every decision yourself. That's exactly what I needed.
The class gave me the spark. Every late night after that was me refusing to let it go out.
Who's building this.
I'm Mark. The handle is PixelatedPrelude — and yes, there's a story behind it. Prelude has two meanings for me. One is the obvious one: the beginning of something, the opening act before whatever comes next. But the other one is more personal — my first project car was a Honda Prelude. I never got it fully back together and running again, which still stings a little — but the parts I did get to work on taught me what it felt like to dig into something mechanical, figure out how it worked, and make it yours. I loved every minute of it. XyvorraOS is the same energy, just a different kind of machine.
The pixel art side of the name comes from exactly what it sounds like — I love pixel art, retro aesthetics, and the kind of detail that goes into making something look great at a small scale. That bleeds into everything about this project.
XyvorraOS isn't built entirely alone. My wife and some close friends handle a lot of the art and design work — the things I'm honest enough to admit I'm not the best at. The builds, the architecture, the systems, the direction — that's all me. But the visual polish and artwork that makes it look the way it does? That's a team effort, and they deserve the credit for it.
No finish line.
There's no version of XyvorraOS where I put the tools down and say it's done. That's not how this works. Every release is the start of the next one. Every feature that ships opens up three more ideas. The roadmap keeps growing because the project keeps growing.
The goal isn't to compete with Ubuntu or Fedora or anyone else. The goal is to build the most interesting, most personal, most visually distinctive Linux distro I can — and keep pushing it further than I thought I could go. Hyprland support, Mission Control dashboard, AI Command Bridge, Theme Studio, Flight Modes — all of it is coming. Some of it I haven't even thought of yet.
This project is proof that you don't need a team or a company or funding to build something real. You need curiosity, stubbornness, and enough late nights to figure out what you don't know yet. Still in that phase. Probably always will be.
Come fly with us.
The crew is small, the ship is getting better every week, and there's always room for more people who get it. Jump in.