============================================== Genode Labs Newsletter - October/November 2010 ============================================== Content 1. Genode OS runs Linux as Browser Plugin 2. New Live CD presenting the Genode OS Framework 3. Genode OS Framework 10.11 released 1. Genode OS runs Linux as Browser Plugin ----------------------------------------- The Genode OS Framework has reached a level that enables new and exciting applications that would be extremely hard to achieve with current commodity operating systems. We have now implemented one prime use case for such an application - a web browser that is able to execute complete Genode subsystems as browser plugins such that each of the plugins and the browser run isolated from each other. A plugin can be an arbitrary Genode application or subsystem, in particular a complete virtualized Linux OS. The isolation goes as far as the mere existence of the web browser can be hidden from the plugin. The browser, in turn, defines the way the plugin is presented on screen but it can neither access any data processed by the plugin nor observe any user interaction with the plugin. Because the browser is outside the trusted computing base of such as plugin, new applications for running web services in a highly secure manner become possible. 2. New Live CD presenting the Genode OS Framework ------------------------------------------------- The web browser mentioned above is one of the tech demos that we compiled on a new Live CD of the Genode OS Framework. The Live CD can be booted on a standard PC and shows off the current state of the framework. Among the things to see are Qt4 applications running directly on a microkernel, a Linux subsystem that is tightly integrated with Genode services, the famous Gears OpenGL demo, and the mentioned web browser. If you are curious about seeing Genode in action, the easiest way is running the Live CD in VirtualBox. Please find the ISO image and further instructions at the following website http://genode.org/download/live-cds As a technical note, the Live CD involves more than 40 components orchestrated in one dynamic environment. These components include user-level device drivers for USB HID, ATAPI, networking, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics, PS/2, and audio output. On top of these drivers, there are protocol stacks such as multiple TCP/IP stacks running in parallel, the Gallium3D stack, and an on-demand-paged ISO9660 file system. These protocol stacks, in turn, form the basis for highly complex applications, the web browser being the most significant example. Have fun seeing all these components working together! 3. Genode OS Framework 10.11 released ------------------------------------- The work on the Live CD motivated a vast amount of improvements throughout the framework. The result of these efforts is now available as the Genode OS Framework version 10.11. The new version introduces an execution environment for reusing device drivers of the gPXE project, enables the use of user-level on-demand paging, enhances the GUI server to support session colors and alpha blending, and further advances the integration of a user-level Linux kernel with native Genode interfaces. In addition, there are new components such as a virtual network bridge and a http-based block driver. Learn more about these and many more improvements in the release notes of version 10.11: http://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/10.11 The new release is available for download here: http://genode.org/download/latest-release About the newsletter -------------------- If you have friends or colleagues who might be interested in our projects, we would appreciate you to forward this email. If you received this newsletter as a forwarded email, you may subscribe to the newsletter here: http://genode-labs.com/newsletter In the case of receiving this newsletter unintended, you can cancel your subscription at any time by replying to this email with the subject set to "unsubscribe". Best regards -- Norman Feske Genode Labs http://www.genode-labs.com/ ยท http://genode.org/
