Linux 0.11 Rewritten in Idiomatic Rust Boots Successfully in QEMU
Linux 0.11 rewritten in idiomatic Rust, boots in QEMU
I have rebuilt the 1991 Linux 0.11 kernel from scratch using modern Rust, preserving its original semantics while leveraging stronger types and clearer abstractions. This project boots on i386 in QEMU, runs a full Unix-style userland with over 80 coreutils, and includes a custom shell with pipelines and history. You can compile the entire system and generate a bootable disk image with a single command.
It keeps the original system's semantics — what it does — while rethinking how it's expressed: stronger types, clearer module boundaries, idiomatic abstractions everywhere.
- prologic
I just compared this Rust implementation against the original C sources. Some ~50k SLOC (Rust) compared to maybe ~8-12k SLOC of C (depending on if you count headers). Why is the Rust implementation so much more complex and onerous?
- mjhay
I used to like rust, but I feel like I’m being Pavlovian-conditioned to recoil at its mention now.
- broodbucket
I hate that 5 years ago I'd see a headline like this and think it was awesome, and now it's just "look at what someone's spent tokens on today"
- bijowo1676
The ultimate boss of Rust rewrites. Very happy that LLM assisted coding unlocks these kind of projects
- xqb64
Slopware?
- jsLavaGoat
I wonder how long until we have an entire distro in Rust? I worked on this from the other end making drop in clones of bash, git, make, nftables, pf, iptables, and others, build on the Rust uutils.
fwiw, I never liked the ergonomics of Rust when coding by hand, but it is head and shoulders my favorite vibe coding language.
- singularity2001
The Redox operating system is a complete rewrite of operating system concepts in Rust.
Disclaimer, I worked on the Mac OS port.
- penguin_booze
I'm wondering if anyone's attempting to revitalise the old Minix. Minix started out an educational software, from which, Torvalds admitted, he drew inspiration. Since then, they had higher ambitions. And now, from the last I heard, it has evolved into neither here nor there.