Xv6 Open-Source Teaching OS

You may know that the MINIX operating system, the inspiration for Linux, was created for teaching purposes (namely, Andrew Tanenbaum’s “Operating Systems” textbook). In the same vein, Xv6 is a newer teaching OS from MIT <https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2022/xv6.html>, for use in an undergraduate operating systems course. Originally it was implemented on x86, but now it has moved to RISC-V. The inspiration for Xv6 was the old 6th Edition Unix from Bell Labs from 1975, back when it only ran on DEC PDP-11 processors. This OS version was the subject of the famous “Lions book” <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Commentary_on_the_UNIX_Operating_System>, circulation of which was supposed to be restricted to those with licences to the Unix source code. And then with the 7th Edition, AT&T even forbade classroom use of this source code. Nevertheless, the book still spread via, shall we say, samizdat ... The Xv6 GitHub area is here <https://github.com/mit-pdos>.
participants (1)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro