Microkernel Devroom

Welcome!

We are a confederation of free software and open source projects that promote the ideas of microkernel-based operating systems. Last year we successfully extended our previous cooperation from FOSDEM's Microkernel devroom into the realm of Google Summer of Code.

So far, the following projects have signed up for this year:

Who Are We Looking for?

We are looking for eligible students with genuine interest in operating systems (especially microkernel-based operating systems), system-level programming and software design. If you recognize yourself in that description, here are some guidelines to follow when interacting with our communities and working on our project ideas.

We would like to invite prospective students to demonstrate their abilities and determination to work on a microkernel-based operating system during the Google Summer of Code 2018 by completing a small programming task before the student application deadline on April 23rd 2018. The students should check with the individual projects for their specific requirements.

Students interested in applying for a Google Summer of Code project also need to fill out the application form and attach it to their application. Without this form, the application cannot considered.

Ideas List

The project ideas for the Google Summer of Code in the context of the Microkernel devroom are divided primarily by the microkernel-based operating system the student wants to contribute to. Here we provide just a summary of ideas for each project and link to each project's Ideas page which contains more details.

The Ideas List should be understood just as a small subset of all possible topics. If you do not see an appealing topic on this list, you might want to consider talking to the core developers of the given microkernel-based operating system about your own ideas. Remember that the ideas are not set in stone and, after all, it is the student who is going to propose the project to the core developers.

HelenOS

HelenOS is a portable microkernel-based multiserver operating system designed and implemented from scratch. It decomposes key operating system functionality such as file systems, networking, device drivers and graphical user interface into a collection of fine-grained user space components that interact with each other via message passing.

Summary of project ideas:

The L4Re Runtime Environment is an operating system framework for building systems with real-time, security, safety and virtualization requirements. It consists of the L4Re hypervisor/kernel and a user-level infrastructure that includes basic services such as program loading and memory management. L4Re also provides the environment for applications, including libraries and process local functionality.

Summary of project ideas:

MINIX 3

MINIX 3 is a free, open-source, operating system designed to be highly reliable, flexible, and secure. It is based on a tiny microkernel running in kernel mode with the rest of the operating system running as a number of isolated, protected, processes in user mode.

Summary of project ideas:

Redox

Redox is a Unix-like operating system written in Rust, aiming to bring the innovations of Rust to a modern microkernel and full set of applications. Redox isn't afraid of dropping the bad parts of POSIX, while preserving modest Linux API compatibility.

Summary of project ideas: