Genode OS Framework release 16.05

The central aspect of the current release is the fundamental renovation of our base API. The API gradually evolved over the years since 2006 while we gained a wealth of experience with a wide range of usage scenarios and their requirements. We eventually realized that we need fundamental changes to greatly increase robustness and flexibility, and those changes will break backwards compatibility in many places. Therefore, this release brings new API functions reflecting our current knowledge about how a secure C++ OS framework should look like and, on the other hand, deprecates a wide range of interfaces that will be removed in future versions.

Beside the API changes, we packed quite a few exciting features and improvements into the release. The highlights are an update of our ported drivers from Linux to version 4.4.3, improved support for ACPI events and functions on x86, enhanced debugging support on NOVA 32-bit and 64-bit, and the capability to implement Genode components in the Rust programming language. Last but not least, Genode 16.05 is accompanied by a new revision of the "Genode Foundations" book.

The extensive release documentation for Genode 16.05 is available from https://goo.gl/TSHoiH