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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.
- The most-recommended balanced take on systemd, from a BSD perspective, handed to anyone caught up in the systemd debate.
- HN recommends it, long as it is, as an eye-opening rant on software complexity and why systems became so complicated.
- Vintage Computer Federation interview recommended in 10 different months by 11 HN users, 2019–2025HN commenters recommend it for Thompson's funny, first-hand Unix history stories, some of which even Kernighan had not heard.
- HN 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 HardwareRepeatedly recommended as a revelatory talk on how little control the main OS has over modern SoCs and PCs.
- HN points people to it as the clearest primary-source explanation of Unix pipes and the small-tools philosophy, straight from the creators.
- Fredrik Knudsen documentary recommended in 8 different months by 7 HN users, 2019–2022Regarded as the definitive, if heartbreaking, account of Terry Davis and TempleOS.
- FOAM explainer recommended in 7 different months by 4 HN users, 2016–2023Cited constantly in threads on microservices, composability and the Unix philosophy as a compact explanation of why small interoperable pieces win.
- Recommended repeatedly as the best account of container history and how Zones built on and went beyond Jails.
- HN considers it one of the best talks for understanding how containers work from the ground up.
- Linux Plumbers Conference talk recommended in 6 different months by 6 HN users, 2013–2024HN cites it as the key explanation of cooperative, user-scheduled kernel threads and the prior art behind later async and coroutine debates.
- HN 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.
- The default reference in Python performance threads for why removing the GIL is hard.
- HN regards it as a gem of a technical talk that tackles a fundamental debugging problem and shows a new technology solving it.
- HN commenters recommend it as a demonstration of the Unix philosophy, with small tools composed through pipes.
- Recommended as a long, rich first-hand account of Mach, NeXT and Apple history and of working for Steve Jobs.
- Linux.conf.au 2013 -- Canberra, Australia talk recommended in 4 different months by 4 HN users, 2018–2024HN uses it as the go-to answer to claims that Wayland is unnecessary, from a developer who knew X's codebase well.
- GopherCon UK talk recommended in 5 different months by 3 HN users, 2016–2019HN recommends it as an accessible way to remove the magic from Docker and understand how containers work.
- Recommended as the go-to talk on firmware security risks, Intel ME, and why replacing UEFI with Linux speeds up and hardens boot.
- HN recommends it for the toybox intro and for Landley's candid account of software licensing and why he created the 0BSD license.
- HN points to it as an accessible explanation of microkernel isolation and fault-tolerant design, and as Tanenbaum's answer to performance objections.
- BSDCan talk recommended in 4 different months by 4 HN users, 2018–2024HN recommends it as a balanced, eloquent take on the systemd debate that even skeptics find persuasive.
- Recommended as an insightful and entertaining critique of UNIX design choices such as file descriptors and 'everything is a file'.
- Jupiter Broadcasting interview recommended in 4 different months by 4 HN users, 2015–2024HN links it for Cantrill's entertaining epoll versus kqueue rant and his stories, such as bricking a machine with rm -rf.
- Docker talk recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2017–2023HN recommends it as a talk that makes containers click, showing that containerization is not virtualization and demystifying what Docker does.
- NCommander documentary recommended in 3 different months by 4 HN users, 2021–2024Recommended as the detailed, entertaining history of why 3D Pinball vanished from Windows.
- WebAssembly NA talk recommended in 3 different months by 2 HN users, 2020–2025HN 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.
- HN commenters recommend it as an engaging and informative explanation of why containers on VMs waste resources and hurt performance.
- bsdconferences talk recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2013–2017Recommended 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.
- Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) talk recommended in 3 different months by 2 HN users, 2020–2026HN recommends it as a fascinating, authoritative account of console hardware security, often cited in threads on hardware security and anti-cheat.
- Recommended as a long, excellent first-hand interview with a legendary OS designer, though some note it is light on technical detail.
- HN commenters recommend it in Smalltalk and Unix threads as a demonstration of runtime dynamism hiding in native binaries and shared libraries.
- Recommended in Julia threading threads as an insightful, simple explanation of the new task scheduler.
- HN commenters recommend it as a demonstration of SerenityOS's hackability and fast iteration across all layers of the system.
- blatherskyte demo recommended in 3 different months by 3 HN users, 2007–2016HN 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.
- The go-to reference for why file operations are slow on Windows and how antivirus filters, not NTFS itself, are the cause.
- timmonta talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2016–2022Recommended as a brilliant demonstration of how to think in Unix pipelines.
- Hackfest Communication talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2015–2022HN points to it as the canonical overview of pledge and the ideas behind OpenBSD's exploit mitigations.
- HN 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.
- New Relic talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2014–2022HN recommends it as an elegant argument for simple Unix tools replacing heavyweight Hadoop-style pipelines.
- illumos talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2014–2019HN points to it as an entertaining deep dive on Linux emulation on SmartOS and on how the Solaris kernel and libc are tightly coupled.
- HN points to it as the long first-person account of Linux history, including Linus on the GPL's role and on microkernels.
- karloch demo recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2014–2018HN points to it as a vivid showcase of how much a modern-feeling GUI OS can do on slow 8-bit hardware.
- Recommended as a rare long-form interview with a legendary operating system designer, though some find it light on technical detail.
- HN 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.
- Shared in threads on window systems and X11 history as a primary-source talk on why NeWS was technically ahead of X.
- Oxide Computer Company podcast episode recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2023–2025HN cites it as Oxide's own explanation of how they ship hardware as a startup and why they picked illumos.
- Recommended as the DTrace creator's own demonstration and a reference for dynamic tracing.
- HN 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.
- Microsoft Israel R&D Center talk recommended in 2 different months by 3 HN users, 2023–2025HN uses it as the primary source for Microsoft's Rust adoption and its reasoning on TPM and security requirements.
- koyhoge demo recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2012–2022HN people cite it as evidence of how fast and responsive a well-designed microkernel desktop could be on modest hardware.
- HN repeatedly cites it for Midori lessons: compatibility matters for adoption, and the Windows team stayed sceptical even with Midori running real workloads.
- Linux.conf.au 2012 -- Ballarat, Australia talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2012–2023HN recommends it as the definitive explanation of XFS metadata performance fixes and how XFS was developed and made robust on Linux.
- Linux.conf.au 2012 -- Ballarat, Australia talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2014–2015Used in software bloat debates as a measured look at why binaries got larger.
- Linux.conf.au 2012 -- Ballarat, Australia talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2012–2017Pointed to as an entertaining, informative explanation of why UEFI is troublesome, from a Linux UEFI developer.
- SirPumpkin talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2011–2023HN 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.
- Whenever Wayland versus X comes up, HN points to this talk as the authoritative explanation from an X maintainer of why X was replaced.
- Jessie Frazelle talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2019–2022HN points to it as an illuminating look at what containers really are and as a video companion to running desktop apps in Docker.
- Micah Lee talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2019–2022Recommended as a great overview of Qubes OS and how its compartmentalization works in practice.
- Justin Cormack talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2015–2020HN commenters recommend it as a rare live look at kOS in action, and one that is fascinating and mind-bending.
- HN points to it as the authoritative source for how WSL2 works and why Microsoft rebuilt it.
- Cathode Ray Dude - CRD documentary recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2024–2026Cited as a deep, entertaining look at firmware-level software and vendors abusing pre-boot access.
- TheRasteri demo recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2011–2021HN cites it as evidence of Microsoft's backward compatibility and of upgrade engineering done well.
- dotcloudtv demo recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2013–2025HN commenters point to it as the historic first Docker demo and a quick overview of what Docker is.
- FreeBSD talk recommended in 2 different months by 2 HN users, 2021–2023HN points to it as the video explanation of how RAID-Z expansion works without block pointer rewrite.
- HN commenters cite it for the history of open source at Sun and Oracle, and for Cantrill's explanation of licensing choices.
- Pointed to as the authoritative history of FFS from one of its original creators.
- Feross talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2021–2023The author and others link it as the definitive explanation of redbean and the APE toolchain, including its performance claims.
- OffensiveCon talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2019–2021Cited in ReactOS threads as an authoritative account of how Windows reverse engineering works and as a rebuttal to claims about ReactOS.
- Cited in OpenBSD threads as a skeptical, evidence-based counterpoint to claims about its security, though some dispute its objectivity.
- BSDTV talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2019–2024HN mostly cites it as background on Plan 9 and its ideas, with one commenter thanking the speaker for an enjoyable talk.
- Recommended as the authoritative, first-hand telling of BSD lore whenever Unix and BSD history comes up.
- Cited in debates about Rust versus C as a thoughtful systems programmer's account of falling for Rust.
- HN 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.
- Cited in init-system and Unix debates as FreeBSD's stance on launchd versus systemd, and recommended for its view of FreeBSD's future.
- HN links it as the standard reference whenever laptop sleep and battery drain on Windows come up, including the later point that nothing has improved.
- Tsoding Daily tutorial recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2024–2025HN commenters cite it as a hands-on example of hot reloading and live coding in C.
- Jupiter Broadcasting podcast episode recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2015–2018Cited as a casual, insightful conversation with Cantrill, and referenced for his views on containers and unikernels.
- Stephanie Borgman talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2018–2021Mostly cited as a source of Unix history stories and asides such as the Crabs prank program and the BLIT terminal.
- Cited as the authoritative overview of kernel hardening goals and priorities, including Cook's car-safety analogy for kernel security.
- VooD demo recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2011–2025Used as the reference example when people argue Windows UI responsiveness regressed after XP.
- X.Org Foundation talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2020–2022Linked for the Microsoft talks on WSL GUI support and how WDDM drivers map into the Linux VM.
- mikeboss demo recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2016–2024HN commenters use it to show how responsive BeOS was on very modest hardware compared with Windows and Mac of the era.
- slawmasta demo recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2011–2022Shared as a demo of a minimal Inferno-based phone OS and an unusual dumb-phone approach.
- Cited as the primary source on how Nitro offloads I/O to dedicated hardware and keeps management tasks off guest CPUs.
- Linux.conf.au 2015 -- Auckland, New Zealand talk recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2015–2019Cited to explain what formal verification of seL4 guarantees, such as ruling out whole classes of bugs like buffer overflows.
- Referenced in security discussions as an example of defense-in-depth sandboxing for a desktop Linux environment.
- HN points to it as the primary source on Dalvik's dex bytecode, register-based design and memory-saving choices.
- Mitchell Hashimoto tutorial recommended in 1 different month by 1 HN user, 2022–2024HN points to it as a practical reference for the Linux-VM-on-Mac workflow and as an entry point to NixOS.
- Cited in ZFS and filesystem threads as the go-to source on ZFS limits and tuning for NVMe.
- HN cites it as an example of workload-dependent performance tuning at scale and of Netflix's AWS practices.
- Used as a primary source for pKVM architecture in threads on Android virtualization and isolated VMs.
- OpenZFS interview cited on HN 4 times, 2014–2023Cited as the authoritative explanation of why block pointer rewrite is so hard to implement in ZFS.
- Vinko demo cited on HN 3 times, 2010–2022Referenced as an example of an innovative, ahead-of-its-time desktop interface.
- Collabora talk cited on HN 3 times, 2020–2022HN references it as the explanation of how Valve uses containers for Linux game compatibility.
- TheRasteri demo cited on HN 4 times, 2017–2021HN cites it as a demonstration of Windows' long backwards compatibility.
- Android Developers talk cited on HN 4 times, 2020–2025Cited as the official explanation of Google's scoped storage changes and its intent to limit broad file access.
- HN cites it as a prime example of FreeBSD tuned for extreme network performance at massive scale.
- Linked as a relevant explainer in threads about Windows quirks and reserved names.
- OmniTI talk cited on HN 3 times, 2017–2020Cited 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.