A comparison of operating systems written in Rust.
There are several open source operating systems written in Rust. Most of them are proofs of concepts. The only system that goes a step further is Redox. It comes with a window manager as well as basic applications like an editor and a file manager. Theseus is approaching maturity with the ability to execute legacy components in a WASM sandboxed environment.
- Redox (repository / homepage)
- Theseus OS (repository / homepage)
- Tock (repository / homepage)
- intermezzOS (repository / homepage)
- ParvaOS (repository)
- reenix (repository)
- rustboot (repository)
- RustOS (repository)
- QuiltOS (repository)
- Tifflin (rust_os) (repository)
- bkernel (repository)
- Quasar (repository)
- SOS (repository)
- MOROS (repository / homepage)
- Fexlix OS (repository)
- Aero (repository)
- Hermit (repository)
- Asterinas (repository)
- Twilight OS (repository)
| Name | Architectures | Pure Rust | Active? | Kernel architecture | Target | Userpace? | Optional GUI? | Contributors | Filesystem | Network stack | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Redox | x86, x86_64, ARM64 and RISC-V | yes | yes | Microkernel | General purpose | yes | yes | 60 | RedoxFS/FAT32/ramfs | smoltcp | MIT |
| Theseus OS | x86_64, ARM WIP | yes | yes | Safe-language SAS/SPL OS1 | General + Embedded | N/A | yes | 25 | Custom/FAT32 | smoltcp | MIT |
| Tock | Cortex-M, RISC-V, x86 | yes | yes | Safe-language SAS/SPL kernel with userspace | embedded | yes | no | 264 | custom | APL 2 / MIT | |
| intermezzOS | x86_64 | no | no | ? | PoC | no | no | 18 | no | ? | APL 2 / MIT |
| ParvaOS | x86_64 | yes | yes | Monolithic | General purpose | no | yes | 1 | ParvaFS | ? | GPL-3.0 |
| RustOS | i386 | ? | no | None | PoC | no | no | 10 | no | None | APL 2 / MIT |
| rustboot | i386 | ? | no | None | PoC | no | no | 8 | no | None | MIT |
| bkernel | ARM | yes | no | ? | Embedded devices | no | no | 4 | ? | smoltcp | GPL with linking exception |
| SOS | x86_64 | yes | no | Microkernel | PoC | no | no | 3 | ? | None | MIT |
| reenix | Brown's CS167/9 | no | no | Monolithic (current state) | PoC | no | no | 3 | ? | None | unknown |
| Quasar | x86_64 | ? | no | ? | ? | no | no | 2 | ? | None | ? |
| Tifflin | x86_64/amd64 | almost | yes | Monolithic | ? | ? | yes | 1 | ISO9660 | ? | 2-Clause-BSD |
| MOROS | x86_64 | yes | yes | Monolithic | General purpose | limited | no | 1 | MFS | smoltcp | MIT |
| Felix OS | x86_64 | yes | yes | ? | General purpose | ? | no | 3 | [FAT16] Read Only | None | MIT |
| Aero | x86_64 | ? | yes | Monolithic | General purpose | ? | yes | 10 | ? | ? | GPL |
| Hermit | x86_64, aarch64 | yes | yes | Unikernel | Cloud and HPC | no | no | >30 | virtiofs | smoltcp | Apache, BSD |
| Embassy | many | yes | yes | embedded framework | embedded | n/a | no | 388 | ? | smoltcp | APL2 / MIT / CC 4.0 |
| Hubris | many | yes | yes | message passing kernel | embedded | n/a | no | 50 | ? | smoltcp | MPL 2.0 |
| Asterinas | x86_64 | yes | Framekernel | General purpose | ? | ? | 42 | ? | smoltcp | MPL 2.0 | |
| Twilight OS | x86_64 | yes | yes | Monolithic | General + Learning | in progress | no | 2 | MinixFS V2 | smoltcp | BSD-3 Clause |
Also worth noting: Robigalia, a sel4 userspace, written in Rust.
-Writing the second video game for the Micro:bit in Rust
-
Talking Tock Week
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Theseus OS Documents
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This week in intermezzOS:
-
Reenix: Implementing a Unix-Like Operating System in Rust (PDF)
-
Ownership is Theft: Experiences Building an Embedded OS in Rust (PDF)
-
(x86_64) Why are platform features such as the red zone enabled by default?
- Safer microcontrollers almost here
- Exploring ARM inline assembly in Rust
- Bare Metal Rust
- Rust bare metal on ARM microcontroller
- Blinking an LED with Rust on a Beaglebone Black
- Zinc goals redefined and extended
- Rust on an Arduino Uno
- Rust on Arduino Due
- http://embedded.hannobraun.de/
- Raspberry Pi Bare Metal Programming with Rust
- Running Rust code on a BBC micro:bit micro-controller
Footnotes
-
Theseus is a safe-language OS that runs all components within a Single Address Space (SAS) and Single Privilege Level (SPL). ↩