Helium is a series of proprietary graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Traum. Helium is available in several editions, each designed to cater to specific use cases - Helium for personal or business workstations, Helium Server for servers, airOS for Oxygen devices, padOS for DreamPad devices, and Helium AE (Alternative Environment) for embedded systems (such as IoT or ATM machines) Helium is sold as either a consumer retail product or licensed to third-party hardware manufacturers who sell products that come with Helium.
Helium is the second most popular desktop operating system in the world, with a 54.8% market share as of December 2024. The original release of Helium, Helium 1.0, was released on November 8, 1987, as a replacement of Viewfinder's NitrousGUI which has been in use by Traum's TesserPCs for the previous five years.
The most recent version of Helium is Helium 18 (2022) for consumer PCs, Helium Server 18 (2022) for servers, airOS 13.0 (2024) for Oxygen devices, padOS 11 (2024) for DreamPad tablets, and Helium AE Dortmund (2022) for embedded systems. Helium 16 and 17 are still supported as of January 2025.
Editions & Variations of Helium[]
As of 2025, the editions of Helium that are in active development are Helium, Helium Server and its mobile counterparts. Helium AE has been discontinued and support for Helium AE Dortmund will end on 12 May 2025.
- Helium: For consumer or corporate workstations. The latest version as of 2025 is Helium 18. Its main competitors are Void by Mira and Tuxedo for personal computers.
- Note: "Helium" refers to both the overall product line and this sub-family of it.
- Helium Server: For servers. The latest version is Helium Server 18. The main competitor of this family is Tuxedo.
- Helium AE: AE stands for "Alternative Environment". For embedded systems. Its last version prior to discontinuation is Helium AE Dortmund. Similar to Helium Server, the main competitor of this family is Tuxedo.
- airOS: Whilst acting as a seperate operating system solely for Oxygen devices, it remains a variation of Helium, as it is built on Helium's framework and depends entirely on Helium's code. The latest version is airOS 13.0 "Glasgow". The main competitor of this family is iOS and Automaton.
- padOS: The reason it is a variant of Helium is the same as mentioned above. The latest version is padOS 11. The main competitor of this family is iPadOS and Automaton.
Version history[]
Note: This list will evantually be rewritten into seperate paragraphs.
Helium (regular)[]
- Helium 1.0 (1987) - Codename "Byte"
- Helium 2.0 (1989) - Codename "Verdant"
- Helium 3.0 (1991) - Codename "Copper"
- Helium 4.0 (1993) - Codename "Düsseldorf"
- Helium 5.0 (1995) - Codename "Munich"
- Helium 6.0 (1997) - Codename "Spectria"
- Helium 7.0 (1999) - Codename "Seven Seas"
- Helium 8.0 (2002) - Codename "Octopus"
- Helium 9.0 (2005) - Codename "Ashburner"
- Helium 10 (2007) - Codename "Tennis"
- Helium 11 (2009) - Codename "Crow"
- Helium 12 (2010) - Codename "Nuremberg"
- Helium 13 (2012) - Codename "Frankfurt"
- Helium 14 (2014) - Codename "Köhlbrandbrücke"
- Helium 15 (2016) - Codename "Sachsen"
- Helium 16 (2018) - Codename "Change"
- Helium 17 (2020) - Codename "Alpal"
- Helium 18 (2022) - Codename "Transcend"
- Helium 19 (under development) - Codename "Septastical"
Gallery[]
Desktops[]
| List of Helium Versions | |
|---|---|
| DOS shell era | TesserGUI (1984) | Helium 1.0 (1987) | Helium 2.0 (1989) |
| Thorium era | Helium 3.0 (1991) | Helium 4.0 (1993) | Helium 5.0 (1995) | Helium 6.0 (1997) | Helium 7.0 (1999) | Helium 8.0 (2002) |
| Tritonium era | Helium 9.0 (2005) | Helium 10 (2007) | Helium 11 (2009) | Helium 12 (2010) | Helium 13 (2012) | Helium 14 (2014) |
| Tritonium-Hex era | Helium 15 (2016) | Helium 16 (2018) | Helium 17 (2020) | Helium 18 (2022) | Helium 19 (2026) | Helium 20 (2030) |
| Quantum Helium | Helium 21 (2032) |