{"slug": "helios", "name": "Helios", "category": "os", "category_name": "Operating systems and desktop", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 6, "warners": 1, "score": 2.53, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2025-11-22", "latest": "2026-10-17", "why": "It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/benadida/helios", "official_url": "https://heliosvoting.org/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Helios", "helios"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 802154384, "item_id": 50134649, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134649", "by": "sigmoid10", "date": "2026-10-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have also been earlier implementations like this one: https://github.com/benadida/helios", "excerpt": "I agree that convincing the public is a separate issue. But on a technical level, these problems are solved. See e.g. this modern implementation: https://github.com/vocdoni/davinci-paper This is a pretty recent one, but the mathematical foundation dates back to the late 80s. There have also been earlier implementations like this one: https://github.com/benadida/helios (corresponding paper https://www.usenix.org/legac", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Source code of the Estonian online voting system"}, {"id": 788479456, "item_id": 49279966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279966", "by": "__d", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves.", "excerpt": "I used Perihelion\u2019s Helios on Transputers for several years. It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves. Plan9 and Helios were independently developed but have a lot in common.", "context": "Used it on Transputers for several years", "use_case": "OS on Transputers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obituary: AmigaDOS developer Dr. Tim King has passed away"}, {"id": 771184080, "item_id": 48199005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199005", "by": "anthk", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "HeliOS and transputers is one of the most interesting systems ever", "excerpt": "HeliOS and transputers is one of the most interesting systems ever; if you use Golang and/or know 9front and concurrency you'll be at home, because it was concurrent and multicore literally by design where the CPU 'cores' synced themselves with messages. https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n4/transputer.html They were pretty much ahead of time with multiprocessing.", "context": "", "use_case": "concurrent multiprocessing OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I've built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 736217248, "item_id": 46013578, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013578", "by": "tomgag", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Why does an e-voting system of an association like IACR not support t-out-of-n threshold decryption?", "excerpt": "The results of the 2025 elections for the president and board members at the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) have been botched because the results of the super-secure cryptographic e-voting system cannot be retrieved due to the \"accidental loss\" of a decryption key. https://iacr.org/news/item/27138 While human mistakes happen, this incident comes under very troubling circumstances. Why does ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "International Crypto Association elections botched by loss of key"}]}], "who": [{"by": "__d", "context": "Used it on Transputers for several years", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279966", "date": "2026-08-12"}, {"by": "sevenoftwelve", "context": "Cryptographer and IACR member", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46021808", "date": "2025-11-23"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["os on transputers", "concurrent multiprocessing os", "oxide's illumos-based os distribution", "iacr elections"], "compared": [], "makers": [{"id": 788632385, "item_id": 49289524, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49289524", "by": "sudomateo", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Our host OS is Helios (Illumos)", "excerpt": "Good question. We use our own hypervisor[0] that's not KVM/QEMU. We don't have nested virtualization today so we don't follow the KubeVirt model, though we are discussing what CRDs like OxideInstance would look like for those that want to operate solely in Kubernetes manifests. The core primitive on Oxide is the instance (virtual machine). We could support some container primitive, but that's a larger product directi", "context": "works at Oxide", "use_case": "host OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Kubernetes on Oxide: How Customer Needs Shaped Our Integrations"}, {"id": 752747024, "item_id": 47046689, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47046689", "by": "GBintz", "date": "2026-02-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "we've been running AGENTS.md in production on helios", "excerpt": "we've been running AGENTS.md in production on helios (https://github.com/BintzGavin/helios) for a while now. each role owns specific files. no overlap means zero merge conflicts across 1800+ autonomous PRs. planning happens in `.sys/plans/{role}/` as written contracts before execution starts. time is the mutex. AGENTS.md defines the vision. agents read the gap between vision and reality, then pull toward it. no manag", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Evaluating AGENTS.md: are they helpful for coding agents?"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50127586", "title": "Source code of the Estonian online voting system", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49286485", "title": "Kubernetes on Oxide: How Customer Needs Shaped Our Integrations", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49272655", "title": "Obituary: AmigaDOS developer Dr. Tim King has passed away", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48195009", "title": "I've built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47034087", "title": "Evaluating AGENTS.md: are they helpful for coding agents?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46706947", "title": "SmartOS", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802154384, "item_id": 50134649, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50134649", "by": "sigmoid10", "date": "2026-10-17", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "There have also been earlier implementations like this one: https://github.com/benadida/helios", "excerpt": "I agree that convincing the public is a separate issue. But on a technical level, these problems are solved. See e.g. this modern implementation: https://github.com/vocdoni/davinci-paper This is a pretty recent one, but the mathematical foundation dates back to the late 80s. There have also been earlier implementations like this one: https://github.com/benadida/helios (corresponding paper https://www.usenix.org/legac", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Source code of the Estonian online voting system"}, {"id": 788479456, "item_id": 49279966, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279966", "by": "__d", "date": "2026-08-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves.", "excerpt": "I used Perihelion\u2019s Helios on Transputers for several years. It was a cool system, and gets far less credit than it deserves. Plan9 and Helios were independently developed but have a lot in common.", "context": "Used it on Transputers for several years", "use_case": "OS on Transputers", "switched_from": "", "story": "Obituary: AmigaDOS developer Dr. Tim King has passed away"}, {"id": 771184080, "item_id": 48199005, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199005", "by": "anthk", "date": "2026-05-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "HeliOS and transputers is one of the most interesting systems ever", "excerpt": "HeliOS and transputers is one of the most interesting systems ever; if you use Golang and/or know 9front and concurrency you'll be at home, because it was concurrent and multicore literally by design where the CPU 'cores' synced themselves with messages. https://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n4/transputer.html They were pretty much ahead of time with multiprocessing.", "context": "", "use_case": "concurrent multiprocessing OS", "switched_from": "", "story": "I've built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of"}, {"id": 747354176, "item_id": 46709636, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46709636", "by": "__tyler__", "date": "2026-01-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Oxide uses Helios, their own illumos-based distro", "excerpt": "Oxide uses Helios, their own illumos-based distro: https://github.com/oxidecomputer/helios They\u2019ve written up their reasoning in this RFD: https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0026#_comparison_illumos_and_linux_2", "context": "", "use_case": "Oxide's illumos-based OS distribution", "switched_from": "", "story": "SmartOS"}, {"id": 736348928, "item_id": 46021808, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46021808", "by": "sevenoftwelve", "date": "2025-11-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "We have been using Helios voting for some time; this was bound to happen at some point.", "excerpt": "Cryptographer and IACR member with a tiny bit of inside knowledge here. To me, the entire matter is mostly amusing; the negative impact on IACR is pretty low. I now have to spend 10-15 minutes voting again. No big deal. It saddens me that Moti Yung is stepping down from his position as an election trustee; in my opinion, this is unwarranted. We have been using Helios voting for some time; this was bound to happen at ", "context": "Cryptographer and IACR member", "use_case": "IACR elections", "switched_from": "", "story": "A cryptography research body held an election and they can't decrypt the results"}, {"id": 736217248, "item_id": 46013578, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013578", "by": "tomgag", "date": "2025-11-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Why does an e-voting system of an association like IACR not support t-out-of-n threshold decryption?", "excerpt": "The results of the 2025 elections for the president and board members at the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR) have been botched because the results of the super-secure cryptographic e-voting system cannot be retrieved due to the \"accidental loss\" of a decryption key. https://iacr.org/news/item/27138 While human mistakes happen, this incident comes under very troubling circumstances. Why does ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "International Crypto Association elections botched by loss of key"}]}