I think what Linus and his advocates want is if it can be done in
userspace, then do it. If you need to mess around with hardward, use a
setuid root server. If you really really can't, maybe you can get little
kernel support extension (hooks is it?) and bigger user-space part. If you
really really really really really can't and no living human being can
live without, Linus MIGHT consider putting it into the kernel.
Me, I much rather type 'java packageA.HelloWorld' thank you very much.
Java interpreter choice vary too much. You can have a byte-by-byte
interpreter much like what Sun initially uses or just-in-time compiler, ie
compiles everything and then executes it. Maybe another company might
release a JIT than is tighter and faster, another more secure. In other
words, out to the userland it goes.
Maybe what linux-kernel really needs is better support for userland device
drivers, something that allow scsi and ide, filesystem device drivers work
as well in userspace. might bloat up the kernel a bit but well justified
if you can remove a big portion of the kernel to userland without too much
loss in performance.
Regards
Hasdi