| Developer | Sun Microsystems |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Discontinued |
| Initial release | 1993 |
| Available in | English |
| Update method | Recompile from source code |
| Platforms | SPARCstation 2, SPARCstation 4, SPARCstation 5, SPARCstation Voyager, SPARCstation 10, SPARCstation 20[1] |
| Kernel type | Microkernel |
Spring is a discontinued project in building an experimental microkernel-based object-oriented operating system (OS) developed at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. Using technology substantially similar to concepts developed in the Mach kernel, Spring concentrated on providing a richer programming environment supporting multiple inheritance and other features. Spring was also more cleanly separated from the operating systems it would host, divorcing it from its Unix roots and even allowing several OSes to be run at the same time. Development faded out in the mid-1990s, but several ideas and some code from the project was later re-used in the Java programming language libraries and the Solaris operating system.