Redox OS ports more software, makes it web-searchable

The developers of Redox OS made a blog post with a roundup of news about improvements being made to the independent, Rust-based operating system. They include more software ports and reliability and performance boosts.

What's new

• A tmux port: The popular multiplexer tmux has been ported to Redox, meaning you can have multiple terminal emulators in a single terminal window.
• Web package search: You can now search Redox OS' packages in your web browser, making it easier to understand what software you can run on Redox without installing it first.
  • Want to check it out? There are separate sites for x86_64, i586, ARM64, and RISC-V packages.

What's getting better

• Hardware boot up: Starting Redox OS on real hardware (as opposed to virtual machines) is getting faster and more reliable.
  • Redox OS is still under development, so mileage varies a lot depending on your hardware.
• RISC-V support: The open source RISC-V processor architecture works better now thanks to "switching to the Sv39 MMU scheme and adding bootloader workarounds."
• System stats: CPU time stats are more accurate now, making the use of apps like htop more reliable.
• Window rendering: Redox's windowing system Orbital gained efficiency improvements, making better use of system resources.

Zooming out

Why this update matters: More kernels independent of the Linux kernel means more overall diversity and resilience in the open source computing world. Continuation of the Redox project helps that.

My take: The last time I tried Redox OS on real hardware (my laptop) it was unusable. I'm interested to try it again soon though.

Diving in

The fineprint: You can head to the blog post for more details on kernel, driver, and library updates.

Get it now: If you want to try Redox OS, you can get the latest release (which is from 2024 😬) or instead the daily images, which have all the improvements discussed. Then follow the Redox quickstart guide.