InfoQ Homepage Operating Systems Content on InfoQ
-
How Solaris' Turnstile Influenced the Modern System Designs of Web Browsers and Language Runtimes
Sun's Solaris influenced modern systems engineering, with key innovations like the Slab Allocator for efficient memory management, OpenZFS for advanced storage, and DTrace for observability. Its turnstile mechanism addressed issues with mutexes, promoting lean locking designs that are reflected in contemporary programming languages and web browsers, enhancing performance and memory efficiency.
-
Amazon Linux 2027 Enters Public Preview with SELinux Enforcing by Default
AWS has released Amazon Linux 2027 in public preview, built on the AL2023 baseline with kernel 7.1 and SELinux in enforcing mode by default. Applications that pass on AL2023's permissive mode may fail under enforcing. The announcement gives no AL2023 end-of-support date, no GA date, and no in-place migration path.
-
Cloudflare OS: Cloudflare's Open-Source Corporate AI Platform Built on a Capability-Based Model
Cloudflare recently open-sourced Cloudflare OS. It allows enterprise teams to output work artifacts grounded in enterprise knowledge, know-how, and provisioned connectors, automate repetitive workflows with optimized token cost (with AI assistance only where needed), and build personal, shareable, customizable work software that caters to specific, complex use cases within a secure sandboxed model
-
How OpenAI Built a Secure Windows Sandbox for Codex Agents
OpenAI details Codex Windows sandbox architecture, showing how SIDs, ACLs, restricted tokens, and dedicated sandbox accounts enable safe execution of autonomous coding tasks. The design balances isolation with real developer workflows and shows how OS security primitives must be composed for AI agents on local development environments.
-
Microsoft Announces Azure Linux 4.0, Its First General-Purpose Server Linux Distribution
Microsoft announced Azure Linux 4.0 and Azure Container Linux at Open Source Summit. Azure Linux 4.0 is a Fedora-based general-purpose server distribution for Azure VMs, the first time Microsoft has offered a supported Linux beyond container hosting. Azure Container Linux is an immutable container-optimized host built on Flatcar.
-
Ubuntu Embraces Local AI instead of Cloud-First OS Integration
Ubuntu has outlined its AI strategy, describing it as a deliberate departure from industry trends towards cloud-centric, AI-first operating systems. Instead, the company says, Ubuntu will focus future releases on local intelligence, modular design, and strict user control.
-
Groupe SNCF Modernizes Infrastructure with Talos OS and Kubernetes
Groupe SNCF, a major railway operator, has successfully migrated from traditional VM-based Kubernetes deployments to a cloud-native platform built on Talos OS and OpenStack, addressing significant operational challenges while navigating complex organizational change. After his talk at TalosCon 2025, InfoQ interviewed Thomas Comtet, senior staff engineer, about this migration.
-
CrowdStrike Update Bricks Estimated 8.5M Windows Machines Worldwide
CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity technology company, recently released a product update that bricked an estimated 8.5 million computers running Windows globally, affecting businesses, individual users, and software companies. The company provides cloud workload protection, endpoint security, threat intelligence, and cyberattack response services.
-
Transactional Serverless Computing: PostgreSQL Creator Announces DBOS Cloud
The creators of DBOS have recently introduced DBOS Cloud, a transactional serverless application platform tailored for TypeScript developers. With all state information stored in a highly available DBMS, this new platform assures transactional serverless computing, offering reliable execution alongside so-called "time travel" capabilities.
-
Arc-Enabled Servers Run Command Public Preview Feature: Remote Management for Various Environments
Microsoft has recently announced a significant preview feature related to Arc-enabled servers, introducing the Run Command. This feature allows customers to manage Azure Arc-enabled servers remotely and securely.
-
Microsoft Open-Sources ThreadX and the Azure RTOS Development Suite
Microsoft contributed Azure RTOS, including real-time OS ThreadX, to the Eclipse Foundation and made it available under the MIT license.
-
Azure Update Manager as Successor of Update Management Center Now Generally Available
Microsoft recently announced the general availability of Azure Update Manager, known previously as Update Management Center - a SaaS solution to manage and govern software updates to Windows and Linux machines across Azure, on-premises, and multi-cloud environments.
-
Microsoft Dev Box Now Generally Available
Microsoft recently announced the general availability (GA) of Microsoft Dev Box, a service providing developers access to preconfigured and centrally managed dev boxes.
-
.NET Framework January 2022 Cumulative Update Preview
Last month, Microsoft released the .NET Framework January 2022 Cumulative Update Preview, part of the company's promise to support .NET Framework. The update targets .NET Framework versions 3.5 and 4.8 and focuses on the Common Language Runtime and Windows Presentation Foundation. The preview release aims to increase reliability and quality of the .NET Framework features for Windows OS.
-
Microsoft Has Now Its Own Linux Distribution Builder, CBL-Mariner
CBL-Mariner is Microsoft's internal tool to create Linux distributions. Meant to power Microsoft's own Cloud infrastructure, CBL-Mariner distributions aim to consume limited disk and memory resources, as well as offer minimal attack surface.