Microkernel: The Comeback?

bariswheel writes "In a paper co-authored by the Microkernel Maestro Andrew Tanenbaum, the fragility of modern kernels are addressed: "Current operating systems have two characteristics that make them unreliable and insecure: They are huge and they have very poor fault isolation. The Linux kernel has more than 2.5 million lines of code; the Windows XP kernel is more than twice as large." Consider this analogy: "Modern ships have multiple compartments within the hull; if one compartment springs a leak, only that one is flooded, not the entire hull. Current operating systems are like ships before compartmentalization was invented: Every leak can sink the ship." Clearly one argument here is security and reliability has surpassed performance in terms of priorities. Let's see if our good friend Linus chimes in here; hopefully we'll have ourselves another friendly conversation."

O Tanenbaum...

[ZombieRoboNinja]

...I got nothing.

The unsinkable Kernel

[Random Destruction]

So this microkernel is the unsinkable kernel?
FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Or...

[Mr. Underbridge]

You could just have a small monolithic kernel, and do as much as possible in userland.

Best of both worlds, no? Wow, I wish someone would make such an operating system...

Didn't he give us Minix?

[Anonymous Coward]

cat tongue >/dev/null

Already Done

[Anonymous Coward]

I think this has already been done in the past. It was called MS-DOS ;-)

Screenshot of GNU Hurd

[njchick]

$ ls /dev
Computer bought the farm

Re:How hard...

[cp.tar]

Well, I hear that GNU/HURD is in the making...

Re:Theory Vs. Practice

[zhiwenchong]

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

- Jan L.A. van de Snepscheut

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-)

Re:Eh hem.

[Ohreally_factor]

Ship analogies are confusing and a tool of the devil.

Could someone out this into an easy-to-understand car analogy, like the good Lord intended?

Re:multicompartment isolation

[gEvil (beta)]

So wait a second. In your analogy, which part of Linux plays the Leonardo DiCaprio role? (I'm curious to know which part of Linux I should take out back and kick repeatedly.)

Re:Hindsight is 20/20

[Ohreally_factor]

I think Prof. T misspelled "running OS X on their G5 Powermac".

Oops!

I misspelled "Duo Core Intel Mac"!

Re:Proof is in the pudding

[polemistes]

You mean: "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

Re:O Tanenbaum...

[cbiltcliffe]

O Tanenbaum, O Tanenbaum
Your microk3rn3l rul3z!
O Tanenbaum, O Tanenbaum
Those m0n0lithic foolz!
They build a kernel all-in-one,
Where all the bugs can have free run.
O Tanenbaum, O Tanenbaum
Those Linux guys just drool. ;)

Re:Eh hem.

[dascandy]

An OS is like a car, you have a good bit of it that takes care of moving your car (the kernel / engine compartment) and a good bit that takes care of you ("user space" for both). The idea is, you can do whatever you want in any passenger seat (login as user, can't crash the system), when you're root (driver) you can crash the system (into a tree or an oops, whichever suits your fancy). Now, when there's a flaw with the suspension that causes your wheels to drift out from under the car, this microkernel mechanism allows you to leave the car in floating condition in the middle of the highway, call the emergency service, they'll reattach the wheels and you can drive on. The same for engine failure, when it fails you'll just stop and you can get another and you can continue. Theoretically, you could have a failed battery after which your car just stops somewhere and you can't run off. Of course, all runs on the car power, so you can't dial emergency help and you're stuck with a perfectly good car that doesn't move. Or, for the analogy, a kernel that can't load a new disk driver off disk.

The kernel should run the drivers that need system level access and shouldn't have been running any other tasks in kernel mode in any case.

Re:The unsinkable Kernel

[this great guy]

Andrew should name such an unsinkable kernel TiTanenbaum.

Re:O Tanenbaum...

[Call Me Black Cloud]

Bravo! Bravo! Funniest post I've seen this month.

Re:We can dream.

[spun]

Yes, good, good, you got it! You got the joke! Good job! Haha! Who's laughing now? You sure showed all those folks who called you "slow" or "differently abled," didn't you? No one can spot a joke like you, that's for sure.