It originally focused on operating systems and their related technologies that launched in 1997, but is now aggregating consumer electronics news.

"[17] Besides its main site, OSNews previously detected hundreds of mobile browsers and handsets[1] and redirected them to a specially formatted cHTML version of the website at mobile.osnews.com.

[citation needed] Like other technology news sites such as Slashdot, it has a free user/subscription model, and allows viewers to add commentary to articles.

On February 12, 2007, managing editor Thom Holwerda published the 1.0 version of the OSNews Style Guide.

In January 2008, Thom Holwerda launched Focus Shift,[24] a webcomic based on the various news items OSNews carries.