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The lack of adoption is because it’s not a complete operating system. Using sel4 on a server requires complex software development to produce an operating envi
by frumplestlatz 1y ago
The lack of adoption is because it’s not a complete operating system.
Using sel4 on a server requires complex software development to produce an operating environment in which you can actually do anything.
I’m not speaking ill of sel4; I’m a huge fan, and things like it’s take-grant capability model are extremely interesting and valuable contributions.
It’s just not a usable standalone operating system. It’s a tool kit for purpose-built appliances, or something that you could, with an enormous amount of effort, build a complete operating system on top of.
- josephg 1y agoYes. I really hope someone builds a nice, usable OS with SeL4 as a base. If SeL4 is like the linux kernel, we need a userland (GNU). And a distribution that's simple to install and make use of. I'd love to work on this. It'd be a fun problem!
- boredatoms 1y agoseL4 needs a ‘the rest of the kernel’ to be like linux
- josephg 1y agoIt needs device drivers for modern x86 hardware. And filesystems, and a TCP stack. All of that code can be done in "SeL4 userland", but yeah - I see your point. Are there any projects like that going on? It feels like an obvious thing.
- frumplestlatz 1y agoA lot of deployments essentially virtualize Linux or run portions of NetBSD (e.g. via their "rump" kernel mechanism) to achieve driver support, file systems, etc. That's not really a general-purpose solution, though. There is work within major consumer product companies building such things (either with sel4, or things based on sel4's ideas), and there's Genode on seL4.
- LargoLasskhyfv 1y agoAre you aware of https://genode.org https://genode.org ?