Tanenbaum-Torvalds Microkernel Debate Continues

twasserman writes "Andy Tanenbaum's recent article in the May 2006 issue of IEEE Computer restarted the longstanding Slashdot discussion about microkernels. He has posted a message on his website that responds to the various comments, describes numerous microkernel operating systems, including Minix3, and addresses his goal of building highly reliable, self-healing operating systems."

Comments

Re:Still Debating

[AKAImBatman]

Forgetting something?

*Minix. This is still an educational kernel. A teaching tool. It remains unsuitable for "real world" use.

Actually, it's a start of a full-up Microkernel operating system. This isn't your grand-pappy's Minix, it's a brand new code base under the BSD license, intended to be developed out into a complete system. It's still taking baby-steps at the moment, but it's coming along quite nicely.

* NT. This is NOT a microkernel!

NT is a hybrid. It has Microkernel facilities that are constantly being used for something different in each version. Early versions of NT were apparently full Microkernels, but this was changed for performance.

* QNX Neutrino. This is the most successful microkernel ever. It deserves all the praise it gets. Yet it is still a niche product.

I would hardly call QNX a "niche" product. Running on everything from your car engine to Kiosk PCs (yes, that stupid iOpener ran it too), it's an extremely powerful and versatile operating system. Its Microkernel architecture even gives it the ability to be heavily customized for the needs of the application. Don't need networking? So don't run the server! Need a GUI? Just add the Graphics server to the startup.

Microkernels haven't failed. However, you may notice that nearly all the popular Operating Systems we use today were all developed back in the late 80's and early 90's. The real problem is that there hasn't been a need to develop new OSes until now. Now that Security and Stability are more difficult pressing issues than performance, we can go back to the drawing board and start designing new OSes to meet our needs for the next decade and a half.