There -is- one microkernel version of Linux that I
know
of - L4Linux - but it runs slower than the modular
kernel (about 10%, I think), the pace of development
on
it is hardly earth-shattering, and I know of nobody
(other than the developers) who use it.
IMHO, if Linux were to change design strategy, it
would
be better to go with the Exokernel design, as there is
less switching between userland and kernelspace and it
would require least architectural change to the
kernel.
Having said that, I personally think a sharp scalpel
and turning the entire kernel into loadable modules is
by far the best approach. The less code churned
through
at any given time, the faster AND the more stable the
results.
(If you then wanted to write a "Module Supervisor"
which
handled module failures, you'd get ALL the theoretical
benefits of microkernels, without the actual slowdown.)
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