Hey everyone. First real post here (besides my introduction post).

I'm just gonna get right into it. Sculpt OS! who's heard of it or even tried it?
It looks rather interesting. Link here: https://genode.org/download/sculpt

TL;DR
- Sculpt OS combines Genode's microkernel architecture
- Capability-based security
- Sandboxed device drivers and virtual machines
- Runs on x86 (32 and 64 bit), ARM, RISC-V
etc.

Most importantly, the screenshots:
https://genode.org/about/screenshots

Here is an introductory lecture from 2018! (sorry for youtube :()
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80h9X2v_yiQ

There has been 2 new releases this year so far and another due in August. The 2020 Road Map focuses a lot on user friendliness wider the adoption of the OS in general.

Check out the screenshots and watch the video to see the work flow. I think this project looks cool although maybe not practical for desktop use as yet. In order to run a web browser you need to run it in a linux VM for now, but I'm hopefull that a native browser will be developed somewhere along the line.

What are your thoughts?

It's an interesting project. I like the concept of having a security mindset from the start:

Quote:Each program runs in a dedicated sandbox and gets granted only those access rights and resources that are needed for its specific purpose.

I see this as the way forward, the principle of least privilege and isolation, every OS is including some form of sandboxing and delimitations between programs. If you think about it, it's the evolution of the separation in virtual memory using hardware mechanisms to protect cross-pollination and stuff like chroot, towards more advanced things like mandatory access control. I'm thinking of things like pleged and unveil on OpenBSD and seccomp on Linux.

(20-07-2020, 09:30 PM)Ramiferous Wrote: In order to run a web browser you need to run it in a linux VM for now

An operating system loses all technical appeal to me if it requires Linux for everyday tasks.

(21-07-2020, 08:46 AM)jkl Wrote: An operating system loses all technical appeal to me if it requires Linux for everyday tasks.

Arguably, not all operating systems are made with everyday tasks in mind, nor should they.

(21-07-2020, 01:25 PM)venam Wrote:

(21-07-2020, 08:46 AM)jkl Wrote: An operating system loses all technical appeal to me if it requires Linux for everyday tasks.

Arguably, not all operating systems are made with everyday tasks in mind, nor should they.

It's not clear to me whether or not this was a conscious design choice for security reasons or if they just haven't implemented a decent solution to native web browsing yet. I wouldn't care that much if launching a browser in a VM only took a few seconds, but it appears that you need to boot the vm OS first then launch the browser within it.

I agree, this aspect of it is a pain in the ass but as venam pointed out, this OS was not initially designed for everyday tasks. Although, the impression I get from reading their road map is that they will implement the basic functionality for these everyday tasks to make the OS appeal to a wider audience and thus have more exposure.

Regardless, I just love the idea behind building your own OS in this way. I've had a play with it in a VM and while it's confusing as hell to begin with, its got me interested so I'll keep digging.

UPDATE:

The convergence of two of my tech interests meet!! The Genode OS Framework's Sculpt OS is coming to the fully Open Source MNT Reform laptop!

This blog post contains the details.

I couldn't believe that this Reddit post was 2 months old and had no comments! I guess I'm in fading away into obscurity..

Anyway, I'm really excited about this and I plan on getting myself a Reform2 laptop to run SculptOS on.

Ohh And it finally has a native Web Browser!

What a super cool project. Might be fun to throw on a spare laptop and see what it can do.

(18-09-2020, 02:10 PM)evbo Wrote: What a super cool project. Might be fun to throw on a spare laptop and see what it can do.

Do it! let me know how it goes on bare metal. I've got a VM set up and have been playing with it for a while now. It's still in it's infancy so not going to be a daily driver anytime soon. But it just feels nice.