A project to create a small, Unix-like, C++ operating system for educational purposes has achieved its first release. Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) in China has released UnixLite 0.2 under the GNU GPL. The 20,000-line C++ OS supports uClibc, and is binary-compatible with Linux.

(Click for larger view of UnixLite login prompt)

UnixLite's project website says that the C++ OS's small size and object-oriented implementation make it easier to understand than the OSes typically used in education. Additionally, UnixLite may someday be suitable for soft real-time embedded applications, according to its project website.

Currently, UnixLite comprises about 20,000 lines of code, and implements about 80 of 153 targeted POSIX-compliant system calls. Like Linux, and unlike Minix, UnixLite supports memory paging, as well as flat memory. It can run uClibc, bash, and gcc, along with some other common Unix tools. It has rudimentary TCP/IP support, and has been demonstrated serving its own source code files via HTTP, as in the image below.

UnixLite serving its own source code via httpd
(Click to enlarge)

UnixLite kernel source code is available for download here. Minimum system requirements are a 486 with 4MB of RAM, and a floppy disk — the kernel does not yet run from hard disks.

Also available is a 14MB “demo” download that includes a small root filesystem, and is meant to be run within the Qemu emulator.

Additional details can be found at UnixLite.org.

 
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