LENS is a project to build an operating system on top of the Linux kernel without worrying about backwards-compatibility with existing software, including the POSIX standard or specific software suites like GNU.

LENS is written in Rust and currently only runs on x86-64 machines, though that would be easy to fix.

Features

LENS features various interesting features, most of which are technically straightforward but require a complete breakage of compatibility to implement. For example:

Instead of everything is a file, LENS uses an everything is a resource model, using URIs. This is more abstract, as not all resources have the same APIs associated, but it means there is a single namespace for just about everything and means that file-like resources such as Web pages can be accessed by programs without special support; the system automatically routes access through a client helper program.
LENS has a package abstraction (compartments) built into the system, including a mechanism for searching through them; as a result, installed packages always live in a well-defined directory or small set of directories, which can be deleted easily to uninstall (as opposed to putting a few files in /usr/bin, a few in /usr/share, etc. and needing a database or uninstall script to find them all), there is a clear and easily-managed mechanism for storing per-user configuration, etc.

Project resources

LENS development is done in a semi-decentralized fashion, but mostly-current code is kept on its own Git server, viewable on the Web via cgit at git.lens-os.xyz. All project code so far is kept in the lens-core repository, and design documentation (much of which far-forward-looking) is kept in the design repository.

Plans exist to implement a mailing list, possibly based on the GNU Mailman or lists.sr.ht packages.

Contributing

The lens-core repository includes a CONTRIBUTING.md file that provides a detailed explanation, but to quickly summarize:

Contribution is most easily accepted via email; since there is currently no mailing list, the temporary email address public00178@alm.website is currently being used, but this address may be replaced at any time if it receives spam in large volumes.
Code changes can be submitted as either git request-pull pull requests or git format-patch patches, optionally with git send-email.

People

The currently-active participants in the project are:

Athena, the main developer and operator of the project infrastructure.

Previously-active participants include:

Luke Jones, who made a number of clean-up contributions and removed redundant work in favor of third-party crates.