One could argue that it should have never lived.

That is not dead which can eternal lie, for with strange eons, even death may die.

SCNR

This comment seems correct. No commits in years [0], but more telling is issue #441 [1]:

> Q: Is nodeOS an abandonned project?

> A: Unluckily, sort of. I've tried sometimes to retake it, but work has absorved me so much that don't have time to engage on long-term side projects, and size of NodeOS itself give me a lot of respect. Obviously this has not been the only problem, I failed to communicate and delegate some work to the community, although they were willing to do so. If only I could get some extra motivation to retake it, like some funds or something, or at least to focus myself on the project and get over to my fears... :-/

So, it seems that it's stalled and with some love it might be able to be resurrected. But even the issue report is over 1 year old.

[0] https://github.com/NodeOS/NodeOS

[1] https://github.com/NodeOS/NodeOS/issues/441

edit: formatting

Interesting reply from the lead. Very honest.