The Great Microkernel Debate Continues

ficken writes "The great conversation about micro vs. monolithic kernel is still alive and well. Andy Tanenbaum weighs in with another article about the virtues of microkernels. From the article: 'Over the years there have been endless postings on forums such as Slashdot about how microkernels are slow, how microkernels are hard to program, how they aren't in use commercially, and a lot of other nonsense. Virtually all of these postings have come from people who don't have a clue what a microkernel is or what one can do. I think it would raise the level of discussion if people making such postings would first try a microkernel-based operating system and then make postings like "I tried an OS based on a microkernel and I observed X, Y, and Z first hand." Has a lot more credibility.'"

Comments

Software Darwinism

[Spazmania]

The best software is the software that, given a reasonable choice, folks choose both choose to write and choose to use. Microkernels are not a new idea, yet few folks have chosen to write them and few have chosen to use the ones that have been written. That speaks for itself.

Besides, what does Andy think, that we're all going to say, "Wow, you're dead on, lets rewrite Linux from scratch with a microkernel?" Linux works. Unless we reach a point where it substantially doesn't (like Windows) there's no value to considering that deep a design change.