Last week, I had the opportunity to present Genode at the operating-systems group of TU Dresden. The talk and discussion was streamed and recorded. You can download the recording here.
Abstract:
The talk presents Genode, an open-source operating system created
independently from the ground up by a small team in Dresden over
the span of 16 years.
It started with the vision of a truly trustworthy general-purpose
OS that combines a novel architecture with microkernels,
capability-based security, sandboxed device drivers, and virtual
machines. This vision ultimately culminated in Sculpt OS - a
ready-to-use operating system for commodity PC hardware.
With an attack surface reduced by 99% compared to contemporary
OSes and robustness against entire classes of typical failures
like crashing drivers or memory exhaustion, it provides the
(technically inclined) user with a surprising new level of control
and autonomy. It boldly challenges established concepts like the
installation, configuration, and spawning of software with a fresh
angle. This is not just intellectually enticing but also reflected
by its custom user interface.
Norman Feske is one of the founders of the Genode project. Besides
presenting the motivation and the fundamental concepts behind
Genode and speaking about trust issues, his talk will touch
technical tidbits like cross-kernel binary compatibility and the
re-use of Linux device drivers. It goes without saying that the
talk will be presented live on Sculpt OS.