Genode OS Framework 16.08 released Aug 31, 2016

Beyond the vastly improved support for seL4, the new release brings a lot of improvements in other areas ranging from networking over virtualization to new tools for statistical profiling.

One highlight is the virtual networking component for routing and NAT accompanied with the ability to use the TOR network. In contrast to existing approaches, the crucial code base needed to anonymize the network traffic, namely the TOR proxy component, depends on a much less complex code base as it is executed as a component on Genode. Especially in combination with virtualization, this scenario might become an interesting technological base for approaches like TAILS or Whonix.

The ability to run VirtualBox on top of a microkernel has become a key feature of Genode that underwent two major improvements in the last release cycle. First, the developers from Codelabs contributed their efforts in running unmodified guest operating systems on top their Muen separation kernel with a port of VirtualBox 4. And second, the new release includes an initial version of VirtualBox 5 on top of the NOVA kernel.

The accompanied release documentation covers all changes in detail.