Oxyde is a lightweight desktop environment and compositor designed to bring back the playful early-2000s look—Aqua chrome, subtle gloss, tasteful blur—without the bloat. The guiding target is a full desktop footprint under 1 GB of RAM, even with animations and glass effects enabled.

• Rust core for safety & performance
• Responsive animations, gentle shadows, frosted panels
• Classic ergonomics: Win key opens the app drawer
• Purpose-built taskbar and file manager (C/C++ for retro flavor)

Oxyde is open source: Oxyde Y2k

• Aqua-glass UI: stacked gradients and soft bevels for an authentic 2003 feel.
• Snappy compositor: tuned frame pacing and efficient blur passes.
• Light by design: minimal background services, careful memory budgets.
• Retro-first UX: large click targets, keyboard nav, classic context menus.

Latest development screenshot (09/24/2025):

Captured from Oxyde-Y2K build – showing early taskbar and start menu.

• Core: Rust
• Compositor: custom, optimized for low RAM usage
• Shell: classic taskbar + start/app drawer
• Apps: file manager & tools (C/C++ for that retro coding vibe)

Note: Exact backends and modules are evolving with pre-alpha work.

• Modern x86-64 CPU (2 cores+ recommended)
• 4 GB RAM (works on less; goal is <1 GB for desktop + compositor)
• Basic 3D-capable GPU

These will be refined as builds mature.

• Oct 2025 — Started sourcing and working on icons.
• Oct 2025 — Coded rust compositor.
• Oct 2025 — Taskbar polish.
• Sep 2025 — Early app drawer & task buttons wired; animations pass 1.
• Aug 2025 — Compositor prototype online; initial Aqua gradient study.