Redox was created by Jeremy Soller and was first published on 20 April 2015 on
GitHub. Redox gets its name from the
reduction-oxidation reactions in chemistry; one redox reaction is the corrosion of iron, also called
rust. Soller himself is also an engineer at
System76. Redox has a focus on safety, stability, and performance. It is inspired by prior
kernels and operating systems, such as
SeL4,
MINIX,
Plan 9,
BSD, and
Linux. Current platform targets include 32-bit and 64-bit x86, AArch64, and 64-bit RISC-V. As of September 2024, the Redox repository had a total of 97 contributors. The OS is not yet
stable.
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, the author of MINIX, commented in 2025 that Redox "has real potential, but it is not there yet, but is worth watching...." == Components and apps ==