> The framework aligns the construction principles of L4 with Unix philosophy. In line with Unix philosophy, Genode is a collection of small building blocks, out of which sophisticated systems can be composed. But unlike Unix, those building blocks include not only applications but also all classical OS functionalities including kernels, device drivers, file systems, and protocol stacks.

That's very interesting, but does it actually work in practice?

Genode developer here. Surprised seeing the project at HN, I'm very happy about the interest.

My colleagues and me are indeed using the system on a daily basis. Personally, I'm running it on an Intel-based Gen12 Framework laptop and on an i.MX8-based MNT-Reform laptop.

Earlier this year, I recorded a casual walk-through of the Genode-based Sculpt OS.

https://genodians.org/nfeske/2025-01-30-sculpt-os-walkthroug...

https://genode.org/download/sculpt

> Sculpt is an open-source general-purpose OS. It combines Genode's microkernel architecture, capability-based security, sandboxed device drivers, and virtual machines in a novel operating system for commodity PC hardware and the PinePhone. _Sculpt is used as day-to-day OS by the Genode developers_.

Yes, I recommend putting Sculpt on USB and trying it on a few years old x86 machine (one with decent Linux support). It’s a vision into a completely different computing paradigm, as distinct as Plan 9 or Qubes. If you are interested in OSdev you will be shocked.

There are Youtube video's of it for a few years now, so you can watch it's progress over time.

Or to see something recent, there's a developer talk about it (~2 weeks ago) that's pretty informative:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=N624i4X1UDw