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Top 23 C Kernel Projects
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Project mention: Tell HN: First commit on Linux Kernel GitHub Page is from 30th of April 2005 | news.ycombinator.com | 2026-05-27
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rt-thread
RT-Thread is an open source IoT Real-Time Operating System (RTOS). https://rt-thread.github.io/rt-thread/
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Project mention: WireGuard makes new Windows release following Microsoft signing resolution | news.ycombinator.com | 2026-04-10
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Project mention: Building a Production eBPF Observability & Security Stack for Kubernetes in 2026 | dev.to | 2026-03-30
# Install Tetragon via Helm helm repo add cilium https://helm.cilium.io helm repo update helm install tetragon cilium/tetragon \ --namespace kube-system \ --set tetragon.grpc.address="localhost:54321" \ --set tetragon.exportFilename="/var/run/cilium/tetragon/tetragon.log" \ --set tetragon.enableProcessCred=true \ --set tetragon.enableProcessNs=true # Install tetra CLI (for event observation) GOOS=$(go env GOOS) GOARCH=$(go env GOARCH) curl -L --remote-name-all \ https://github.com/cilium/tetragon/releases/latest/download/tetra-${GOOS}-${GOARCH}.tar.gz sudo tar -C /usr/local/bin -xzvf tetra-${GOOS}-${GOARCH}.tar.gz rm tetra-${GOOS}-${GOARCH}.tar.gz
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unikraft
A next-generation cloud native kernel designed to unlock best-in-class performance, security primitives and efficiency savings.
I've been using unikraft (https://unikraft.org/) unikernels for a while and the startup times are quite impressive (easily sub-second for our Rust application).
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stress-ng
This is the stress-ng upstream project git repository. stress-ng will stress test a computer system in various selectable ways. It was designed to exercise various physical subsystems of a computer as well as the various operating system kernel interfaces.
Funny that it talks about matrixprod, which I think is not that relevant as benchmark — unless you care about x87 performance specifically. I recently sent a pull request to try to address that in a generic manner: https://github.com/ColinIanKing/stress-ng/pull/561
Yet I'm still surprised by this benchmark. On both Zen2 and Zen4 in my tests (5900X is Zen3), matrixprod still benefits from hyperthreading and scales, unlike what the article shows.
All of this is tangential of course, as I'd tend to agree that CPU utilization% is just an imprecise metric and should only be used as a measure of "is something running".
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TripleCross
A Linux eBPF rootkit with a backdoor, C2, library injection, execution hijacking, persistence and stealth capabilities.
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Project mention: The Kernel's Blind Spot: Deconstructing the Advanced Techniques of the Singularity Rootkit | dev.to | 2026-01-27
View the Project on GitHub
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Project mention: Open, free, and ignored: the afterlife of Symbian | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-07-17
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brutal
🏢 An operating system inspired by brutalist design that combines the ideals of UNIX from the 1970s with modern technology and engineering
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uC-OS3
µC/OS-III is a preemptive, highly portable, and scalable real-time kernel. Designed for ease of use on a huge number of CPU architectures.
NOTE:
The open source projects on this list are ordered by number of github stars.
The number of mentions indicates repo mentiontions in the last 12 Months or
since we started tracking (Dec 2020).
C Kernel discussion
C Kernel related posts
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Tell HN: First commit on Linux Kernel GitHub Page is from 30th of April 2005
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How to debug kernel memory corruption on Apple Silicon
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The mdadm backup file: when it's needed, and when it isn't
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ReactOS
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Valve releases Steam Controller CAD files under Creative Commons license
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How fast is a macOS VM, and how small could it be?
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AI assistance when contributing to the Linux kernel
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A note from our sponsor - SaaSHub
www.saashub.com | 10 Jun 2026
Index
What are some of the best open-source Kernel projects in C? This list will help you:
| # | Project | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | linux | 235,340 |
| 2 | reactos | 17,604 |
| 3 | raspberry-pi-os | 13,782 |
| 4 | rt-thread | 12,030 |
| 5 | windows-kernel-exploits | 8,667 |
| 6 | winfsp | 8,641 |
| 7 | tetragon | 4,724 |
| 8 | pwru | 3,765 |
| 9 | unikraft | 3,668 |
| 10 | tilck | 3,095 |
| 11 | HackSysExtremeVulnerableDriver | 3,006 |
| 12 | stress-ng | 2,659 |
| 13 | zen-kernel | 2,552 |
| 14 | xone | 2,456 |
| 15 | Diamorphine | 2,353 |
| 16 | TripleCross | 1,952 |
| 17 | Singularity | 1,678 |
| 18 | elks | 1,627 |
| 19 | helenos | 1,562 |
| 20 | embox | 1,561 |
| 21 | h-encore | 1,106 |
| 22 | brutal | 1,104 |
| 23 | uC-OS3 | 1,060 |
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