HeineOS is a teaching operating system for the x86_64 architecture written in Rust. It serves as the basis for the operating system courses at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, where students build their own operating system from scratch.
This is a project by the Operating Systems group at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
HeineOS is built gradually over the course of 14 lessons, each introducing new concepts and features.
The lessons are available at the branches of this repository.
The first seven lessons are part of the first course Operating Systems Development (Betriebssystementwicklung),
while the remaining seven lessons are part of the second course Isolation and Protection in Operating Systems (Isolation und Schutz in Betriebssystemen).
Operating Systems Development:
- Lesson 1: Input/Output
- Lesson 2: Memory Management & PC Speaker
- Lesson 3: Interrupts
- Lesson 4: Cooperative Multitasking
- Lesson 5: Preemptive Multitasking
- Lesson 6: Filesystem & Porting a Game Boy Emulator
- Lesson 7: Implement your own Application or OS Component
Isolation and Protection in Operating Systems:
- Lesson 8: User Mode Threads
- Lesson 9: System Calls
- Lesson 10: Memory Management for Physical Memory
- Lesson 11: Paging
- Lesson 12: Processes
- Lesson 13: Managing Virtual Address Spaces
- Lesson 14: Implement your own Application or OS Component
Each year, exceptional submissions are included in our Hall of Fame.
This was the first year for the course Operating Systems Development. At that time, the system was called hhuOS and developed in C++. It targeted the 32-bit x86-architecture and used CGA text mode for screen output, but students were given the option to switch to a VESA framebuffer by the end of the course. In 2017 hhuOS was spun off into its own project still developed in its own repository and the operating system for this course was renamed to hhuTOS (TOS stands for Teaching Operating System).
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Jochen Peters - Fractals
2016-jochen-peters.mp4
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Filip Krakowski - Space Invaders
2016-filip-krakowski.mp4
By 2023, students could choose whether to implement their operating system in C++ (hhuTOSc) or Rust (hhuTOSr). The operating system switched to the 64-bit x86_64-architecture but still targeted older computers with a classic BIOS (no UEFI). It still used CGA text mode for screen output, with the optional VESA framebuffer extension.
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Jannik Esser - CGA Space Invaders
2023-jannik-esser.mp4
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Tim Laurischkat - PAC-MAN
2023-tim-laurischkat.mov
In 2024, C++ was completely replaced by Rust.
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Christoph Jung - Sound Blaster
2024-christoph-jung.mp4
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Lukas Rose - Text Adventure
2024-lukas-rose.mp4
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Richard Schweitzer - Tetris
2024-richard-schweitzer.mp4
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Erik Gal - PAC-MAN
2025-erik-gal.mp4
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Lukas Lang - Pokémon Reimplementation (No Emulator!)
2025-lukas-lang.mp4
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Stephan Schmidt - Minesweeper
2025-stephan-schmidt.mp4
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Max Richter - CGA Pong (Github: DerHyper)
2025-max-richter.mov
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Kevin Weber - CGA PAC-MAN
2025-kevin-weber.mp4
In 2026, hhuTOS was renamed to HeineOS. It now works on modern 64-bit x86_64-computers with a UEFI BIOS and uses a framebuffer (provided by the bootloader) right from the start, instead of CGA text mode.
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Abdulrahman Al Hamidi - Snake
2026-Abdulrahman-Al-Hamidi.mp4
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Arda Öztürk - Roguelike
2026-Arda-Ozturk.mp4
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Ben Geissler - Picross
2026-Ben-Geissler.mp4
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David Baranowksi - Videopoker
2026-David-Baranowski.mp4
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Felix Tichelofen - PvE Shooter
2026-Felix-Tichelofen.mp4
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Lennart Pries - Pomodoro Timer
2026-Lennart-Pries.webm
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Lukas Medlitsch - Desktop Oberfläche
2026-Lukas-Medlitsch.mp4