I Turned My Portfolio Into an Operating System
I needed a new portfolio and I was bored before I started. Hero section, three cards, contact form. I've seen it a thousand times and so have you.
So I built an operating system instead.
MaksimOS is a little retro desktop that runs in your browser. Start menu, windows you can drag around, a file explorer, a terminal, a browser called Orbit, mail, games, a forum. My projects live inside it. So does this blog.
Why an OS
Honestly, because it sounded fun. Then it turned out to be useful too. Every idea I have now has an obvious home. Want to try something? It's a new app.
It also does the job a portfolio is supposed to do. If you click around for a few minutes, you'll know more about how I build things than a list of skills could tell you.
What it runs on
I kept it small on purpose. Plain JavaScript with no framework and no build step. Node on the server. Postgres for the data. One runtime dependency.
The only heavy thing is three.js, and it only loads when you shut the computer down.
No framework means the window manager is mine. Dragging, resizing, focus, minimizing, remembering where everything was when you come back. I described it, looked at what came back, and kept pushing until it felt right.
AI wrote a lot of this
I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I vibecoded this, and most of the typing wasn't me.
What surprised me was how much work was left. I spent my time on questions like what happens when two people draw on the same pixel, what a guest should be allowed to touch, and whether a feature was any good or just possible.
The AI will happily build the feature. It won't always ask what happens when someone tries to break it. That part was on me. So chess moves get checked on the server, because a modified browser shouldn't be able to cheat, and the database gets backed up every night and test-restored.
The stupid stuff is the best stuff
My favourite parts have nothing to do with getting hired.
There's a huge canvas where everyone draws together, a few pixels a day. There's a room where you can play chess against a stranger. There's a shared folder that anyone signed in can drop things into.
And if you shut the computer down, the view pulls out of the screen into a comic book version of my actual bedroom, with me sitting at the desk. I took photos so it would match. I removed the mess.
It has no practical purpose. It's my favourite part.
If your portfolio feels like homework, build the weird version. You can see my other projects here, or just open the site and start clicking. Try shutting it down.