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.'"

crickets

[192939495969798999]

And now, cue thousands of replies from people who have personally created microkernels and have sensible observations to make on their validity as a base for an OS...

(crickets)

And another debate goes on.

[AltGrendel]

Haven't we dealt with this before? [penny-arcade.com]

Re:crickets

[trolltalk.com]

And now, cue thousands of replies from people who have personally created microkernels and have sensible observations to make on their validity as a base for an OS...

... Linus Torvalds ...

hmmmm...

[William Robinson]

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

Hmmm....he must be new here ;)

Old News

[j_kenpo]

Thats great.... the article is dated May 12, 2006. Is it still "news" if its "old news"?

Re:Old News

[Random BedHead Ed]

Old articles for nerds. Stuff that mattered.

Re:crickets

[Dancindan84]

Yeah. Slashdotters are being asked to:
1) RTFA
2) Have first hand knowledge of the subject
3) Make a reasoned, non-biased post/article on the subject

Talk about a dead end.

Re:crickets

[Dread Roberts]

Well, the Linux kernel used to be smaller...

Re:Which one?

[metamatic]

I'm guessing that Andy Tannenbaum might want you to take a look at MINIX 3.

That's just a wild stab in the dark, though.

Re:Tag this article...

[mouko]

only a matter of time before someone puts a vi vs emacs spin on it, since we haven't had that shoutfest for a while either.

Not a chance. Everyone knows that emacs is for little girls, anyway.

Linus is right

[Anonymous Coward]

I am with Linus on this one. Of course.
I firmly believe not to be on Linus' side of the debate is treacherous

Ok, here is my experience...

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried an OS (QNX) based on a microkernel and I observed first hand that it would not run my windows-based games (not even Solitaire!).

Re:Tag this article...

[Ricochet]

only a matter of time before someone puts a vi vs emacs spin on it, since we haven't had that shoutfest for a while either.

Not a chance. Everyone knows that emacs is for little girls, anyway.

(Yeah it's flame bait, but I'd like a little fun ...)

Yeah emacs may be for little girls but this 'little girl' can kick you're butt. Let's take this outside ... owie, owie, bright thing in the sky burns the eyes, it burns the eyes. ;-)

Like jump-rope

[Tony]

For little girls, and big fuck-off boxers.

(With pardons to Eddie Izzard.)

Re:Which one?

[jonas_jonas]

I'm gonna get tarred and feathered for this but...

no, but tarred and gzipped? ;-)

Re:Tag this article...

[HexaByte]

Well, I think that writing complaints about Slashdot dupes is best done on emacs when your OS has a monolithic kernel, and on vi when using a micro kernel.

Re:Tag this article...

[fbartho]

If you had used emacs you wouldn't have messed up that quote block!

Can he stick the landing?

[Bluesman]

And he tries for the flame war trifecta...NO GOOD! Oh, you hate to see that when they work so hard to prepare for the big game.

Still, two flame wars in one sentence is nothing to scoff at, which is why the artistic score will be high. However, the judges really wanted to see some sort of garbage collection vs. malloc/free or even an Intel/AMD mention. That could cost him the gold.

Let's see what the rest of the competitors have to offer.