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Top 12 C Microkernel Projects
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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: 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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kernel
Portable asynchronous microkernel with multiprocessor priority scheduling and Unix-like abstractions (by lux-operating-system)
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Project mention: Show HN: Anos – a hand-written ~100KiB microkernel for x86-64 and RISC-V | news.ycombinator.com | 2026-04-03
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Project mention: Top Level System – A modular C microkernel with 50 hot-loadable modules | news.ycombinator.com | 2026-04-06
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 Microkernel discussion
C Microkernel related posts
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OpenBSD 7.9 Released
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Dirtyfrag: Universal Linux LPE
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Math Is Hard
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SeL4 – a formally verified, capability-based microkernel
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SeL4: The most highly assured and fastest operating system kernel
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Why Modern Operating Systems Still Carry 1990s Assumptions
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SeL4 is a formally verified operating system
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A note from our sponsor - SaaSHub
www.saashub.com | 13 Jun 2026
Index
What are some of the best open-source Microkernel projects in C? This list will help you:
| # | Project | Stars |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | rt-thread | 12,039 |
| 2 | seL4 | 5,538 |
| 3 | helenos | 1,564 |
| 4 | brutal | 1,104 |
| 5 | f9-kernel | 761 |
| 6 | ghost | 644 |
| 7 | microkernel-book | 268 |
| 8 | kernel | 187 |
| 9 | CMRX RTOS | 123 |
| 10 | anos | 111 |
| 11 | MoonOS | 108 |
| 12 | TopLevelSystem | 0 |
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