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Show HN: AsteroidOS 2.0 – Nobody asked, we shipped anyway

210 points by moWerk ago | 26 comments

Hi HN, After roughly 8 years of silently rolling 1.1 nightlies, we finally tagged a proper stable 2.0 release. We built this because wrist-sized Linux is genuinely fun to hack on, and because a handful of us think it's worth keeping capable hardware alive long after manufacturers move on. Smartwatches don't really get old — the silicon is basically the same as it was a decade ago. We just keep making it useful for us.

No usage stats, no tracking, no illusions of mass adoption. The only real signal we get is the occasional person who appears in our Matrix chat going "hey, it booted on my watch from 2014 and now it's usable again" — and that's plenty.

Privacy is non-negotiable: zero telemetry, no cloud, full local control. Longevity is the other half: we refuse to let good hardware become e-waste just because support ended. On the learning side, it's been one of the best playgrounds: instant feedback on your wrist makes QML/Qt, JavaScript watchfaces and embedded Linux feel tangible. The community is small and kind — perfect for people who want to learn open-source dev without gatekeeping.

Technically we're still pragmatic: libhybris + older kernels on most devices since it just works, but we've already mainlined rinato (Samsung Gear 2) and sparrow (ASUS ZenWatch 2) — rinato even boots with a usable UI. That's the direction we're pushing toward.

Repo: https://github.com/AsteroidOS Install images & docs: https://asteroidos.org 2.0 demo video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FiQz0yACc Announcement post: https://asteroidos.org/news/2-0-release/

Questions, port requests, mentoring offers, criticism, weird ideas — all welcome. We do this because shaping a tiny, open wearable UX and infrastructure is oddly satisfying, and because Linux on the wrist still feels like a playground worth playing in.

Cheers, the AsteroidOS Team

Arifcodes |next [-]

The 'nobody asked, we shipped anyway' energy is the right spirit for OSS. The wearable OS space is a duopoly with zero interoperability, and having a Linux base means you can actually write what you want without fighting proprietary SDKs.

The QML choice makes sense for the constraints. It gets a bad reputation in desktop contexts, but for small screens with limited input it is genuinely practical. The bigger win here is what happens when a manufacturer abandons your watch: instead of a dead device, you keep getting updates.

Congrats on 2.0. Sustained long-term open source projects are rare, and this one solves a real problem.

bsimpson |next |previous [-]

Wild to see such fragmentation in such a niche space. It's an aftermarket Linux flash for smartwatches, and there are companion apps for SailfishOS and Ubuntu Touch, which are extremely niche flavors of the already very niche mobile Linux.

dylan604 |root |parent |next [-]

Not being much of a watch person let alone a smartwatch aficionado, I had no idea there were even that many smart watches. The long list looks impressive. I wonder if there are a lot of the same guts so it's not as bad of a nightmare to maintain as it looks. Either way, the list of supported devices is impressive.

moWerk |root |parent [-]

Indeed quite some watches share the same platform as can be seen in this list: https://wiki.asteroidos.org/index.php/Technical_Details_of_A... But the manufacturers all cook their own soups and its surprising how much adaption is still necessary per device.

refulgentis |root |parent |previous [-]

> niche space

Think of the space as less "I want Linux on my wrist", and more "I want a [cheap || not 1st world expensive] smartwatch as a gift."

These folks do gods work of making them supported and a real shared platform (c.f. their self-post "The only real signal we get is occasional [chat visitor] going "hey, it booted on my watch from 2014 and now it's usable again"")

MayeulC |next |previous [-]

Hey, thanks for the new release. I should definitely fix my wristband and start wearing my AsteroisOS watch again (LG Lenok).

You have probably addressed that somewhere, but would it be possible to run your UI stack somewhere else? (PostmarketOS).

My other wish for AsteroidOS would be for it to leverage Wi-Fi better. Not sure how much more energy it would use, but having a longer range for my notifications would be nice (at least on LAN). Being able to perform a few other actions independently of my phone would be great: weather % time updates, e-mail notifications, home assistant control, etc. I get that it may affect battery life as well.

While I'm at it: tiny bug report, but I adjusted the time while the stopwatch was running, and this affected the stopwatch result.

zozbot234 |next |previous [-]

These are all Linux kernel-based WearOS watches (not just smartbands running a barebones microcontroller), so could they be running a mainlined kernel and Linux OS such as pmOS? Of course the UI layer might be specific to the form factor, but everything else could just be standard.

verin0x |root |parent [-]

In theory yes. Asteroidos has experimental support for a mainline watch. Most vendors don't upstream their drivers and kernel mods. Also Android drivers use an abstraction layer and a different format to some extentent. So you have to reverse and write your own driver.

So they could run mainline if the vendor or a user bothers to upstream drivers and hardware quirks.

A lot of the vendors don't meet quality expectations of the kernel team and sources are usually for older kernel versions and the code would need changes or refactoring.

zozbot234 |root |parent [-]

The mainlining work is usually done by the community, not necessarily vendors. The relevant pmOS wiki page is https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Category:Watch but it may be less comprehensive or up-to-date than the AsteroidOS hardware support list. Everyone can help by adding technical info about hardware to the wiki!

adithyassekhar |next |previous [-]

This is seriously impressive! Never knew after market os's were even a thing for watches with their proprietary drivers.

I like that peeking watch face switcher, companies like samsung even after all these years still takes way too long to apply a watch face.

moWerk |root |parent [-]

Thanks so much! The peek gesture is inherited from lipstick and we kind of built our UI around those possibilities.

cfiggers |next |previous [-]

This is an awesome project. Props to y'all for just making something you want to exist!

I have a Tizen-based Samsung watch (Gear Sport, 2017). It's served me faithfully but I'm starting to notice the battery degrading. I'd be interested in trying AsteroidOS with it, if Tizen support ever lands.

anitil |next |previous [-]

> wrist-sized Linux

What a charming turn of phrase!

jeron |root |parent [-]

we're finally upon the year of the linux wristwatch

xrd |next |previous [-]

Can anyone suggest where to find a watch that is supported if you live in the US? I've been scanning eBay but it feels difficult to get ahold of a supported device. Are there sites that ship to the US where a new or used device can be found?

listic |root |parent |next [-]

I can see some Fossil Gen 6's on eBay in the US. (I only learned about AsteroidOS today and I'm not in the US)

moWerk |root |parent |previous [-]

Usually the Ticwatch Pro 2018/2020 (catfish) is widely available since it was a popular model. The more recent version Ticwatch Pro 3 (rubyfish/rover) is freshly ported and not as well supported as the first Ticwatch Pro yet. I bought one new in box just this week from german ebay for 70€. We got a Team member in the US/ML who is hoarding watches and seems to have no problem acquiring them :D I wish you luck.

xrd |root |parent [-]

This sounds like an interesting investigatory problem you've put in front of me...

Thanks so much!

mapcars |next |previous [-]

Thats awesome! Recently I was looking into making apps for my smartwatch that don't exist (like watch display with multiple timezones), and infrastructure to make your own apps is very poor.

One thing I wish for is Rust support, since its running Linux it should be possible, isn't it?

moWerk |root |parent [-]

It would be possible to use Rust. Nobody got around working on it tbh. But simple things like your mentioned watchface idea are really quick to do in QML.

Pxtl |next |previous [-]

I have a galaxy watch 4 which I'd hoped was old-enough to be supported but I can see that it is not. I get it, hardware is hard.

I'm curious, is the challenge with newer hardware lack of chipset drivers for modern watches, or is there a fundamental difference between the new devices and the old ones that make them completely incompatible with asteroidOS?

tamimio |next |previous [-]

Thanks for sharing this, it looks promising!

I would love if it would support some of the no-brand Chinese watches you get usually for cheap, the hardware is great but the software usually is bad or outdated. I use one now, I don’t even know anything about it other than the Bluetooth name and app name, but it’s good in measuring distance, blood pressure, heart rate, sleep, among others that’s surprisingly it’s very accurate, it also has a builtin strong flashlight, I like it but with a fully fledged linux would definitely be better.

MagneFire |next |previous [-]

Great work to everyone involved with the project!

lovegrenoble |next |previous [-]

Rust support?

verin0x |root |parent [-]

The main UI and GUI components are Qt. So you could use Qt bindings to build something with Rust. If you don't want the same look and feel, it's just a normal linux with wayland and systemd. Cross compile to the architecture and adapt the UI to the small displays and you should be fine.

lovegrenoble |next |previous [-]

well done!