The Lions Operating System

30 points by wezm

lorddimwit

I look forward to the printed source code of this OS being distributed in an underground fashion.

AndrewO

Yeah, I had assumed that this was going to be an OS that was meant to be a runnable version of the code in the Lions book. (I know that exists somewhere else. EDIT: I might have been thinking of xv6) But this looks pretty cool too.

hwj

Kudos for not being yet another OpenBSD/FreeBSD/Debian rebranding.

david_chisnall

Why would it be? It’s built by the team behind seL4 to try to make something where people can build on top of seL4 and not have to deal with the painful seL4 APIs directly. I presume it will pull in bits of various BSDs into servers as needed.
mhd

I think I've read about the L4 microkernel since, well, probably the Torvalds-Tanenbaum debates, but rarely have seen it used in a practical project. So this is quite interesting…

(Although looking at the languages section, I'm a bit disappointed that they're not bringing back ELAN ;) )
- pgeorgi
  
  Not sure if it counts as a "practical project", but genode.org and its "distro" SculptOS are based on L4, supporting a variety of L4 kernels, and it's a decade+ old.
  - spenc
    
    They just came out with a new version too! I’m really excited about Genode, and it’s a usable enough project that the devs run it as their daily driver.
    
    It has ports of Chromium, Virtual Box, vi, & Doom but not a ton else yet
- puffnfresh
  
  Really interesting that they're using virtual machines to run Linux and then reuse existing drivers. Having real ARM hardware with a full GUI and touch interface is very impressive and useful! I could almost imagine using it for the dash of an electric vehicle I'm building.
  - fosslinux
    
    Funnily enough, this has been done by NIO!
- mtlynch
  
  Who is the audience for this OS? Is it specifically for seL4 enthusiasts?
  
  As a data point from someone in the market for a prosumer firewall OS, the description of this project is almost completely inscrutable to me.
  
  The opening paragraph reads:
  
  LionsOS is an operating system based on the seL4 microkernel with the goal of making the achievements of seL4 accessible. That is, to provide performance, security, and reliability.
  
  Unless the reader already already knows what seL4 is and why it's important, the paragraph is meaningless.
  
  Generally, people talk about presenting your product in terms of benefits rather than features, but the project page isn't even talking features, just implementation details.
  
  Compare this to the opening lines on OPNsense, which I don't even think has especially good presentation, but they're focused on user benefits:
  
  OPNsense® is an open source, feature rich firewall and routing platform, offering cutting-edge network protection.
  
  We've made digital security accessible to everyone. With our free OPNsense® platform, you get all the features of expensive commercial firewalls and more. Enjoy open and verifiable sources in a product developed with and for a large user community.
  
  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the audience for this project, but if it's meant for people like me, consider revisiting the project description so that it answers the question, "What can we tell someone in our target audience to make them see why this project is cool and interesting?"
  - indolering
    
    The project has pretty strong roots in academia and they aren't great at messaging. AFAIK the community (for now) is largely OS developers because LionsOS is still in alpha. As such, there are not a lot of obvious end-user benefits (yet).