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posted by martyb on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-gonna-create-our-own-mistakez! dept.

There's a new operating system that wants to do away with the old mistakes and cruft in other operating systems. It's called Redox OS and is available on GitHub. It's aimed at creating an alternative OS that is able to run almost all Linux executables with only minimal modifications. It features a pure ecosystem using the Rust programming language which they hope will improve correctness and security over other OSes. They are not afraid to prioritize correctness over compatibility. The philosophy being that "Redox isn't afraid of dropping the bad parts of POSIX while preserving modest Linux API compatibility."

Redox levels harsh criticisms at other OSes, saying "...we will not replicate the mistakes made by others. This is probably the most important tenet of Redox. In the past, bad design choices were made by Linux, Unix, BSD, HURD, and so on. We all make mistakes, that's no secret, but there is no reason to repeat others' mistakes." Not stopping there, the Redox documentation contains blunt critiques of Plan 9, the GPL, and other mainstays.

Redox OS seems to be supported on the i386 and x86_64 platforms. The aims are microkernel design, implementation in Rust language, optional GUI — Orbital, newlib for C programs, MIT license, drivers in userspace, common Unix commands included, and plans for ZFS.

They want to do away with syscalls that stay around forever and drivers for hardware that, for a long time, simply isn't possible to buy any more. They also provide a codebase that doesn't require you to navigate around 25 million lines of code like Linux.

Perhaps the mathematically proven L4 microkernel is something to consider over the monolithic kernel approach where any single driver can wreck the system? One aspect to look out for is if they map the graphic cards into user space.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by multixrulz on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:42AM

    by multixrulz (5608) on Tuesday March 22 2016, @08:42AM (#321474)

    ... they don't know the first thing. They're using a github SSL certificate on redox-os.org.

    But more to the point, get back to me when it's as functional as ReactOS.

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  • (Score: 1) by Cornwallis on Tuesday March 22 2016, @09:20AM

    by Cornwallis (359) on Tuesday March 22 2016, @09:20AM (#321486)

    You beat me to it. Way to inspire trust right out the gate.

  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday March 22 2016, @01:58PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Tuesday March 22 2016, @01:58PM (#321599)

    Wow, a *red* untrusted connection page. I can't even remember the last time I've seen one of those.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday March 24 2016, @11:29AM

      by Nuke (3162) on Thursday March 24 2016, @11:29AM (#322489)

      Wow, a *red* untrusted connection page [www.redox-os.org]

      Indeed. And they are complaining about "design mistakes"!