Drew DeVault shares progress on Helios, a microkernel OS written in the Hare programming language. Key updates include a new scheduler, a redesigned userspace API (uapi) with fault delivery to supervisor processes, an improved threading API with TLS support, a new physical page allocator, and capability-based address allocation. A new userspace component called Mercury is introduced, providing a driver environment with a tar-based initramfs, ELF loading, and a declarative driver manifest system. The first driver — a sandboxed x86_64 serial driver — is running, demonstrating the security benefits of capability-based isolation over monolithic kernels. Next steps include I/O abstractions over IPC, a getty equivalent, VGA terminal driver, ramfs, and eventually disk and filesystem drivers.
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