The Jury Is In: Monolithic OS Design Is Flawed [pdf]

Post by pjmlp » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 6:36 PM UTC

agumonkey wrote: post #57

KMag wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The dirty secret is that we take a microkernel, rename the syscalls as "upcalls", throw in some hardware emulation code as a less efficient and uglier API for software that can't be bothered to be ported, and call it a hypervisor. Also, your phone's baseband processor almost certainly runs a microkernel, and likely so does your car.

and according to someone, your Nintendo console too It's quite crazy to count all the layers cpu microcode cpu isa hypervisor os kernel userspace api browser runtime js vm application your mouse I want my 386 back

Post by amelius » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 6:40 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #53

I'd hazard to say that every design is "flawed" in some regards: there's no way to achieve all desirable qualities and none of undesirable qualities. For one, some desirable qualities contradict each other. So "${thing} is flawed" is not precise enough; an interesting statement would be "${thing} is not the best choice for ${conditions}". A monolithic OS is not the best choice for a high-reliability system on unrelia…

Post by hinkley » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 6:41 PM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #26

lainga wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Who is dressing up as a monk?

Post by beat » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 6:53 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #63

nine_k wrote: post #53

I'd hazard to say that every design is "flawed" in some regards: there's no way to achieve all desirable qualities and none of undesirable qualities. For one, some desirable qualities contradict each other. So "${thing} is flawed" is not precise enough; an interesting statement would be "${thing} is not the best choice for ${conditions}". A monolithic OS is not the best choice for a high-reliability system on unrelia…

> In other words, the ancient concept of "right tool for the job" still applies. Or use a multi-tool ;)

Post by m3mpp » Wed, Aug 15, 2018, 6:55 PM UTC

nkkollaw wrote: post #10

Linux is the most popular OS in the world (of course, counting Android), so I guess this means it doesn't really matter is monolithic is flawed, or it is not flawed enough.