Osiris is a C++ GUI toolkit, forked from Qt at version 2.3.2. It is fast, simple, and aesthetically lacking. However, it is still a highly functional toolkit and runs on modern Linux systems.

The primary use is providing a toolkit for MiDE (our fork of KDE1), due to licensing issues and some other issues with Qt version 1. However, it is a great way to bring other legacy applications back to life – both those using Qt1 and Qt2 (and there’s nothing stopping you from using it to write new applications either).

Getting Osiris

Osiris is packaged for Debian and Ubuntu. Distributions based on those may be able to use those packages, however, it has not been tested.

Ubuntu Instructions

Supported architectures: amd64, arm64

Note on supported architectures: The arm64 port isn’t as well tested as the others, due to not having a good ARM board on hand right now. Please file a bug report if you have any issues.

Supported releases: noble

To add the official Libranext Pub-Package repository for Ubuntu, run the following commands (substituting your distribution codename):

sudo echo 'deb https://debpkg.libranext.com/pub/ubuntu <your distribution here> main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libranext-pub.list
wget https://debpkg.libranext.com/pub/ubuntu/pool/main/libranext-debpkg-keyring_2025_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i libranext-debpkg-keyring_2025_all.deb
sudo apt update

After adding the repository, run the following commands to install Osiris:

sudo apt install osiris originator osiris-dev-tools osiris-dev osiris-doc originator-doc

Debian Instructions

Supported architectures: amd64, i386, arm64

Notes on supported architectures:

  • The i386 packages were built for Pentium II or higher machines. If you need support for Pentium machines, you should compile Osiris per the build instructions below.
  • The arm64 port isn’t as well tested as the others, due to not having a good ARM board on hand right now. Please file a bug report if you have any issues.

Supported releases: bookworm

Notes on supported distributions: Users have reported success using the Debian packages on a Devuan system. While not tested, these packages should also work on LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition). If you have issues, please report an it on the bug tracker.

To add the official Libranext Pub-Package repository for Debian, run the following commands as root (substituting your distribution codename):

echo 'deb https://debpkg.libranext.com/pub/debian <your distribution here> main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libranext-pub.list
wget https://debpkg.libranext.com/pub/debian/pool/main/libranext-debpkg-keyring_2025_all.deb
dpkg -i libranext-debpkg-keyring_2025_all.deb
apt update

After adding the repository, run the following commands to install Osiris:

apt install osiris originator osiris-dev-tools osiris-dev osiris-doc originator-doc

Source code

Current stable release: Osiris 2.4.3. You can download the source code from its release page here.

Current development release: Currently 2.5.0

Screenshots