January 14, 2026
10KB, 10k opinions
Show HN: A 10KiB kernel for cloud apps
Tiny cloud kernel drops—devs ask if it can actually run stuff
TLDR: A developer launched a 10KB cloud OS that uses minimal memory and runs one app close to the metal. Commenters love the minimalism but debate security and practicality, asking if it can run common tools like nginx—especially after the demo’s raw HTTP output sparked jokes and skepticism.
Hacker News lit up when a developer dropped a 10KB “exokernel” for cloud apps—basically a tiny operating system that lets one app talk almost directly to the machine. It uses just 4MB for itself, shoves the rest to your app, and currently runs on DigitalOcean and Proxmox, with AWS/Azure/GCP “coming soon.” Minimalism fans cheered; skeptics sharpened their knives.
The hottest debate: speed vs. safety vs. usefulness. One commenter worried aloud about security and robustness in a barebones build, while another asked the practical question everyone’s thinking: can you just compile and run nginx, or does everything need to be custom-built for this environment? The vibe is: “cool demo, but show us how to run real software.” Meanwhile, folks poked the live demo at baremetal.returninfinity.com and got raw plaintext headers, prompting jokes that the 404 is part of the feature set.
Amid the sparring, nostalgia swept in: veterans remembered BareMetalOS and its loader Pure64 from OSDev days, celebrating the long-haul persistence. Others framed it as an art piece vs. product battle: lean, elegant, and fast—yet missing the “how-to” for everyday apps. The crowd wants a guide, a sample app, and a reason to pick tiny over tried-and-true. Drama level: high; kernel size: tiny.
Key Points
- •BareMetal Cloud is a minimal exokernel sized at 10,240 bytes and uses 4 MiB of memory, allocating the rest to the payload.
- •It has been tested on DigitalOcean and Proxmox, with planned support for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
- •An instance is running at http://baremetal.returninfinity.com that responds to HTTP and ICMP.
- •Prerequisites include NASM, QEMU, and Git on a Debian-based system or macOS via Homebrew, with provided install commands.
- •Detailed build, install, run, and cloud deployment steps are provided, including creating a VMDK image and deploying on DigitalOcean and Proxmox.