= About HelenOS =

HelenOS is a [wiki:HardwareSupport#Architectures portable] microkernel-based multiserver operating system designed and implemented from scratch. It decomposes key operating system functionality such as file systems, networking, device drivers and graphical user interface into a collection of fine-grained user space components. These components interact with each other via message passing. A failure of one does not directly harm others. HelenOS is therefore flexible, modular, extensible, fault tolerant and easy to understand.

HelenOS is open source / free software. Its source code is available under the [wiki:License BSD license]. Some third party components and components based on [wiki:License GPL] software are licensed under [wiki:License GPL].