This is like saying Linux is more secure than Windows because not all of Window's critical vulnerabilities appear in Linux.
The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
11–20 of 199 posts
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#12That chart with the growth of the Linux kernel discredits everything. The Linux kernel continues to grow because they are obsessed with keeping all drivers in mainline instead of having a stable API for them as any sane project would.
While equally obsessed with maintaining a stable API towards userspace. Sadly much of userspace is an unstable churn of API changes.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#13I wonder if there exists a parallel dimension where linux is microkernel design and folks are pushing for monolothic citing the driver friendliness and performance
If parallel dimensions exist, then it's most certainly one of the closest dimensions to ours.
If I'm sure of one thing, it's that as soon as we decided to build everything as Microkernels, we'd have the same squeaky wheels touting the massive benefits of Monotlithic OS design. We're hilariously cyclical in our preferences.
"Think of all the runtime efficiencies of the shared memory, and how much easier it would be to develop on the shared codebase!"
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe one of the reasons Linux continues to be successful today is _because_ they keep the drivers in mainline _without_ a stable API. It is a key motivator to ensure drivers remain available and supported well into the future of Linux.
Which given the way legacy AMD drivers story has been handled on Ubuntu, it is quite far from actually being so. My Asus Netbook no longer gets all the acceleration options that it used to have pre 16.04. Linux is successful because it is a free beer UNIX clone.
You still have the source to the old drivers. It's just not a priority for others to support anymore, but you have the means to go add that support yourself, or pay a third party to do it for you.
Contrast with when windows changed the video driver architecture in Vista, and the only option you had was to pound sand.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#15The title is missing "from a security standpoint". Of course, everything is a tradeoff. TLDR: > We have presented what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first quantitative empirical assessment of the security implications of operating system structure, i.e. monolithic vs microkernel-based design. > Our results provide very strong evidence that operating- system structure has a strong effect on security. 96% of cr…
The age old joke about the computer encased in concrete at the bottom of the ocean does indeed come to mind.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#16I wonder if there exists a parallel dimension where linux is microkernel design and folks are pushing for monolothic citing the driver friendliness and performance
Lack of performance on microkernels is a myth nowadays.
QNX and many embedded OS, some of which driving high integrity software, are all microkernel based.
Including the one most likely handling the real time communication of this mobile radio.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#17That chart with the growth of the Linux kernel discredits everything. The Linux kernel continues to grow because they are obsessed with keeping all drivers in mainline instead of having a stable API for them as any sane project would.
I believe one of the reasons Linux continues to be successful today is _because_ they keep the drivers in mainline _without_ a stable API. It is a key motivator to ensure drivers remain available and supported well into the future of Linux.
Linux on the desktop would have succeeded with a stable driver API. Having hardware with closed source drivers supported could have being a walk in the park for OEMs. Bad 3D, wireless, etc. support is what killed Linux. OEMs would have probably made more and better drivers if they didn't have to make changes to them every few months or go through the effort of releasing and mainlining the source.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which given the way legacy AMD drivers story has been handled on Ubuntu, it is quite far from actually being so. My Asus Netbook no longer gets all the acceleration options that it used to have pre 16.04. Linux is successful because it is a free beer UNIX clone.
You still have the source to the old drivers. It's just not a priority for others to support anymore, but you have the means to go add that support yourself, or pay a third party to do it for you. Contrast with when windows changed the video driver architecture in Vista, and the only option you had was to pound sand.
I skipped Vista, however my XP drivers were fully supported on the upgrade to 7.
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#19I wonder if there exists a parallel dimension where linux is microkernel design and folks are pushing for monolothic citing the driver friendliness and performance
the Hurd-verse lives! Richard Stallman is a clean-shaven, foulmouthed autocrat, and Linus is composing folk songs about joining hands with Intel and Nvidia!
Re: The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]
#20I wonder if there exists a parallel dimension where linux is microkernel design and folks are pushing for monolothic citing the driver friendliness and performance
If parallel dimensions exist, then it's most certainly one of the closest dimensions to ours. If I'm sure of one thing, it's that as soon as we decided to build everything as Microkernels, we'd have the same squeaky wheels touting the massive benefits of Monotlithic OS design. We're hilariously cyclical in our preferences. "Think of all the runtime efficiencies of the shared memory, and how much easier it would be to…
This isn't specific to software: The grass is always greener on the other side.