Radiant's purpose is to explore what personal computing could be when designed from first principles.
We believe the current trajectory of personal computing is leading us to a less free world, and that only a new computing movement rooted in human dignity and creativity can change its course.
Radiant is a computer reimagined from the ground up, a clean-slate design free from the historical baggage that plagues modern systems, and free from Big Tech's influence.
It's a computer designed to help you learn, create, play, and explore; a return to the simple joy of computing: just you and your ideas.
Computers today are designed around engagement and surveillance business models rather than user needs. App stores are filled with adware, platforms prioritize data collection over user agency and social media algorithms optimize for addiction. Big Tech fundamentally reshaped computing from a tool for human empowerment into a massive data collection system.
But that's not all. Software today is typically slow, bloated and bug ridden. Despite orders of magnitude in increased hardware efficiency, building software that is reliable, fast, and easy to use has become incredibly challenging. The vast majority of software fails to meet this bar.
Developers are expected to write software without knowing the hardware it will ultimately run on, making testing and quality assurance virtually impossible. The result is software that will never meet user expectations nor utilize their hardware efficiently and responsibly.
The systems we have today are neither friendly, nor safe. They do not take privacy seriously and fail to respect user freedoms. These are not qualities that can be retrofitted onto platforms that weren't designed with them from the start. That is why we have to rethink the personal computer from the ground up, with these values as the foundation.
Radiant's vision of computing
Radiant proposes an alternative vision for computing: a vertically integrated system, where hardware and software are co-designed as one. It doesn't ship with a web browser; it has its own network reminiscent of the early Internet: no social media, no scripts, no trackers. It's a from-scratch system that doesn't retrace the footsteps of contemporary operating systems. It's a new paradigm for personal computing that uses modern advances mindfully and deliberately, a fully open computer, from hardware to software that is comprehensible by a single human. It's a platform that makes great software possible, and is built to protect user freedom.
User freedom means the ability to truly own and modify your system. Code is computing's native medium; yet computers don't come with coding environments anymore. Coding has lost the simplicity it once had, when it was within reach of any curious mind. Radiant is different, it's designed for software creation, making it accessible to anyone. Every application and every surface exists as code you can read, edit, and extend. We want people to feel like they own and understand their machines. We want to bring the joy of computing back, and bring it to everyone.
Radiant belongs to a more humane future: a computer that welcomes curiosity, invites experimentation, and feels like your own. It's personal computing for the next generation.
Find out more about the Radiant system, or read our design principles and tenets.
Radiant is an ongoing research project in personal computing. If this resonates with you, write us at 📧 letters@radiant.computer or follow us on 🦋 Bluesky @radiant.computer. If you prefer 📡 RSS, we have a feed at /log/rss.xml.
You can learn more about Radiant by browsing our log or notes.