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Operating systems & kernels: videos Hacker News recommends
Operating systems: kernels, scheduling, virtual memory, Unix, BSD, Windows internals, microkernels, virtualization, containers, OS research, system calls, boot process. Below: every video in this topic that at least three HN users linked with real commentary, in at least three different months (71 talks, 13 demos, 6 interviews), best-scored first, with the comments on each video page.
- 16 HN recommenders 14 months 2019–2025The most-recommended balanced take on systemd, from a BSD perspective, handed to anyone caught up in the systemd debate.
- 11 HN recommenders 11 months 2018–2024HN recommends it, long as it is, as an eye-opening rant on software complexity and why systems became so complicated.
- 11 HN recommenders 10 months 2019–2025V Vintage Computer Federation · interviewHN commenters recommend it for Thompson's funny, first-hand Unix history stories, some of which even Kernighan had not heard.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2012–2026HN points to it as the definitive, entertaining account of Sun's fate under Oracle, and quotes its Ellison lawnmower advice whenever Oracle behaves badly.
- USENIX ATC '21/OSDI '21 Joint Keynote Address-It's Time for Operating Systems to Rediscover Hardware12 HN recommenders 9 months 2021–2026Repeatedly recommended as a revelatory talk on how little control the main OS has over modern SoCs and PCs.
- 10 HN recommenders 8 months 2013–2026HN points people to it as the clearest primary-source explanation of Unix pipes and the small-tools philosophy, straight from the creators.
- 7 HN recommenders 8 months 2019–2022F Fredrik Knudsen · documentaryRegarded as the definitive, if heartbreaking, account of Terry Davis and TempleOS.
- 4 HN recommenders 7 months 2016–2023F FOAM · explainerCited constantly in threads on microservices, composability and the Unix philosophy as a compact explanation of why small interoperable pieces win.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2016–2025Recommended repeatedly as the best account of container history and how Zones built on and went beyond Jails.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2018–2025HN considers it one of the best talks for understanding how containers work from the ground up.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2013–2024L Linux Plumbers Conference · talkHN cites it as the key explanation of cooperative, user-scheduled kernel threads and the prior art behind later async and coroutine debates.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2014–2026HN recommends Cantrill talks generally for their mix of industry history, technical depth and entertaining delivery, and this one is a favorite for storage and data integrity threads.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2023The default reference in Python performance threads for why removing the GIL is hard.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2013–2026HN regards it as a gem of a technical talk that tackles a fundamental debugging problem and shows a new technology solving it.
- 6 HN recommenders 5 months 2015–2024HN commenters recommend it as a demonstration of the Unix philosophy, with small tools composed through pipes.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2017–2024Recommended as a long, rich first-hand account of Mach, NeXT and Apple history and of working for Steve Jobs.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2024L Linux.conf.au 2013 -- Canberra, Australia · talkHN uses it as the go-to answer to claims that Wayland is unnecessary, from a developer who knew X's codebase well.
- 3 HN recommenders 5 months 2016–2019G GopherCon UK · talkHN recommends it as an accessible way to remove the magic from Docker and understand how containers work.
- 6 HN recommenders 4 months 2017–2023Recommended as the go-to talk on firmware security risks, Intel ME, and why replacing UEFI with Linux speeds up and hardens boot.
- 5 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2025HN recommends it for the toybox intro and for Landley's candid account of software licensing and why he created the 0BSD license.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2013–2023HN points to it as an accessible explanation of microkernel isolation and fault-tolerant design, and as Tanenbaum's answer to performance objections.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2018–2024B BSDCan · talkHN recommends it as a balanced, eloquent take on the systemd debate that even skeptics find persuasive.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2022–2025Recommended as an insightful and entertaining critique of UNIX design choices such as file descriptors and 'everything is a file'.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2015–2024J Jupiter Broadcasting · interviewHN links it for Cantrill's entertaining epoll versus kqueue rant and his stories, such as bricking a machine with rm -rf.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2023D Docker · talkHN recommends it as a talk that makes containers click, showing that containerization is not virtualization and demystifying what Docker does.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2024N NCommander · documentaryRecommended as the detailed, entertaining history of why 3D Pinball vanished from Windows.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025W WebAssembly NA · talkHN points to it as an impressive look at how far WebAssembly can go, and as the explanation of the architecture behind CheerpX and its Flash support.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2015–2025HN commenters recommend it as an engaging and informative explanation of why containers on VMs waste resources and hurt performance.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2013–2017B bsdconferences · talkRecommended as an engaging, non-technical history of Unix and BSD from someone who was there, and cited for specific stories like the TCP/IP stack.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2026M Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) · talkHN recommends it as a fascinating, authoritative account of console hardware security, often cited in threads on hardware security and anti-cheat.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2023–2026Recommended as a long, excellent first-hand interview with a legendary OS designer, though some note it is light on technical detail.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2016–2023HN commenters recommend it in Smalltalk and Unix threads as a demonstration of runtime dynamism hiding in native binaries and shared libraries.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2019Recommended in Julia threading threads as an insightful, simple explanation of the new task scheduler.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2022HN commenters recommend it as a demonstration of SerenityOS's hackability and fast iteration across all layers of the system.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2007–2016B blatherskyte · demoHN uses it as the classic example of rapid visual app building and of a polished early Jobs presentation, often with timestamps pointing to the database demo.
- 5 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025The go-to reference for why file operations are slow on Windows and how antivirus filters, not NTFS itself, are the cause.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2022T timmonta · talkRecommended as a brilliant demonstration of how to think in Unix pipelines.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2022H Hackfest Communication · talkHN points to it as the canonical overview of pledge and the ideas behind OpenBSD's exploit mitigations.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2018–2024HN commenters share it as a rare, atmospheric look at what working at an early computing center was actually like, including how code was submitted and processed.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2014–2022N New Relic · talkHN recommends it as an elegant argument for simple Unix tools replacing heavyweight Hadoop-style pipelines.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2014–2019I illumos · talkHN points to it as an entertaining deep dive on Linux emulation on SmartOS and on how the Solaris kernel and libc are tightly coupled.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2008–2014HN points to it as the long first-person account of Linux history, including Linus on the GPL's role and on microkernels.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2014–2018K karloch · demoHN points to it as a vivid showcase of how much a modern-feeling GUI OS can do on slow 8-bit hardware.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2024Recommended as a rare long-form interview with a legendary operating system designer, though some find it light on technical detail.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2022–2025HN points to it as the recorded talk behind the Netflix 800Gb/s slides and as a deep look at kernel-level optimizations for high throughput.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2024Shared in threads on window systems and X11 history as a primary-source talk on why NeWS was technically ahead of X.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2025O Oxide Computer Company · podcast episodeHN cites it as Oxide's own explanation of how they ship hardware as a startup and why they picked illumos.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2011–2021Recommended as the DTrace creator's own demonstration and a reference for dynamic tracing.
- 3 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2022HN points to it as a deep dive into the surveillance features of North Korea's OS and the extent of that state's digital tracking.
- 3 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2025M Microsoft Israel R&D Center · talkHN uses it as the primary source for Microsoft's Rust adoption and its reasoning on TPM and security requirements.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2012–2022K koyhoge · demoHN people cite it as evidence of how fast and responsive a well-designed microkernel desktop could be on modest hardware.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2017–2025HN repeatedly cites it for Midori lessons: compatibility matters for adoption, and the Windows team stayed sceptical even with Midori running real workloads.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2012–2023HN recommends it as the definitive explanation of XFS metadata performance fixes and how XFS was developed and made robust on Linux.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2014–2015Used in software bloat debates as a measured look at why binaries got larger.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2012–2017Pointed to as an entertaining, informative explanation of why UEFI is troublesome, from a Linux UEFI developer.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2011–2023S SirPumpkin · talkHN points to it as a vivid example of the clash between two philosophies of Linux desktop design, often in systemd and Wayland arguments, though many find it disrespectful.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2023Whenever Wayland versus X comes up, HN points to this talk as the authoritative explanation from an X maintainer of why X was replaced.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2022J Jessie Frazelle · talkHN points to it as an illuminating look at what containers really are and as a video companion to running desktop apps in Docker.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2022M Micah Lee · talkRecommended as a great overview of Qubes OS and how its compartmentalization works in practice.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2020J Justin Cormack · talkHN commenters recommend it as a rare live look at kOS in action, and one that is fascinating and mind-bending.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2019–2023HN points to it as the authoritative source for how WSL2 works and why Microsoft rebuilt it.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2024–2026C Cathode Ray Dude - CRD · documentaryCited as a deep, entertaining look at firmware-level software and vendors abusing pre-boot access.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2011–2021T TheRasteri · demoHN cites it as evidence of Microsoft's backward compatibility and of upgrade engineering done well.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2013–2025D dotcloudtv · demoHN commenters point to it as the historic first Docker demo and a quick overview of what Docker is.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2021–2023F FreeBSD · talkHN points to it as the video explanation of how RAID-Z expansion works without block pointer rewrite.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024HN commenters cite it for the history of open source at Sun and Oracle, and for Cantrill's explanation of licensing choices.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2023Pointed to as the authoritative history of FFS from one of its original creators.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2021–2023F Feross · talkThe author and others link it as the definitive explanation of redbean and the APE toolchain, including its performance claims.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2021O OffensiveCon · talkCited in ReactOS threads as an authoritative account of how Windows reverse engineering works and as a rebuttal to claims about ReactOS.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2024Cited in OpenBSD threads as a skeptical, evidence-based counterpoint to claims about its security, though some dispute its objectivity.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2024B BSDTV · talkHN mostly cites it as background on Plan 9 and its ideas, with one commenter thanking the speaker for an enjoyable talk.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2025Recommended as the authoritative, first-hand telling of BSD lore whenever Unix and BSD history comes up.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2023Cited in debates about Rust versus C as a thoughtful systems programmer's account of falling for Rust.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2012–2026HN commenters cite it as primary-source evidence of what Jobs actually said about Mac OS X's design, open-source kernel and NeXT-based transition.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2014–2016Cited in init-system and Unix debates as FreeBSD's stance on launchd versus systemd, and recommended for its view of FreeBSD's future.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2026HN links it as the standard reference whenever laptop sleep and battery drain on Windows come up, including the later point that nothing has improved.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2024–2025T Tsoding Daily · tutorialHN commenters cite it as a hands-on example of hot reloading and live coding in C.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2015–2018J Jupiter Broadcasting · podcast episodeCited as a casual, insightful conversation with Cantrill, and referenced for his views on containers and unikernels.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2018–2021S Stephanie Borgman · talkMostly cited as a source of Unix history stories and asides such as the Crabs prank program and the BLIT terminal.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2016–2019Cited as the authoritative overview of kernel hardening goals and priorities, including Cook's car-safety analogy for kernel security.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2011–2025V VooD · demoUsed as the reference example when people argue Windows UI responsiveness regressed after XP.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2022X X.Org Foundation · talkLinked for the Microsoft talks on WSL GUI support and how WDDM drivers map into the Linux VM.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2016–2024M mikeboss · demoHN commenters use it to show how responsive BeOS was on very modest hardware compared with Windows and Mac of the era.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2011–2022S slawmasta · demoShared as a demo of a minimal Inferno-based phone OS and an unusual dumb-phone approach.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2025Cited as the primary source on how Nitro offloads I/O to dedicated hardware and keeps management tasks off guest CPUs.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2015–2019L Linux.conf.au 2015 -- Auckland, New Zealand · talkCited to explain what formal verification of seL4 guarantees, such as ruling out whole classes of bugs like buffer overflows.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2019–2024Referenced in security discussions as an example of defense-in-depth sandboxing for a desktop Linux environment.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2012–2018HN points to it as the primary source on Dalvik's dex bytecode, register-based design and memory-saving choices.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2024M Mitchell Hashimoto · tutorialHN points to it as a practical reference for the Linux-VM-on-Mac workflow and as an entry point to NixOS.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2023–2025Cited in ZFS and filesystem threads as the go-to source on ZFS limits and tuning for NVMe.
- cited 3× 0 months 2018–2022HN cites it as an example of workload-dependent performance tuning at scale and of Netflix's AWS practices.
- cited 3× 0 months 2023–2025Used as a primary source for pKVM architecture in threads on Android virtualization and isolated VMs.
- cited 4× 0 months 2014–2023O OpenZFS · interviewCited as the authoritative explanation of why block pointer rewrite is so hard to implement in ZFS.
- cited 3× 0 months 2010–2022V Vinko · demoReferenced as an example of an innovative, ahead-of-its-time desktop interface.
- cited 3× 0 months 2020–2022C Collabora · talkHN references it as the explanation of how Valve uses containers for Linux game compatibility.
- cited 4× 0 months 2017–2021T TheRasteri · demoHN cites it as a demonstration of Windows' long backwards compatibility.
- cited 4× 0 months 2020–2025A Android Developers · talkCited as the official explanation of Google's scoped storage changes and its intent to limit broad file access.
- cited 4× 0 months 2021–2024HN cites it as a prime example of FreeBSD tuned for extreme network performance at massive scale.
- cited 4× 0 months 2020–2026Linked as a relevant explainer in threads about Windows quirks and reserved names.
- cited 3× 0 months 2017–2020O OmniTI · talkCited as a classic Cantrill talk when threads discuss madvise, malloc and Dirty COW behavior.
Showing the 100 best-scored of 108. Use search to find the rest.
Questions
What is the most recommended operating systems & kernels video on Hacker News?
The Tragedy of systemd by linux.conf.au: The most-recommended balanced take on systemd, from a BSD perspective, handed to anyone caught up in the systemd debate.
How is this operating systems & kernels list ranked?
By HackerTube's score: the number of distinct months in which an HN comment recommended the video, plus half a point for every month with a strong recommendation. One viral thread counts less than steady recommendations over years.
Where do the videos come from?
From every Hacker News comment between 2007 and 2026 that linked a YouTube video, labeled by an AI model as a recommendation, a citation, a joke or a criticism. The list is published by HackerTube under ODC-By 1.0; this edition adds indexable pages and the comment context.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.