Re: Macintosh kernel out

Povl H. Pedersen (pope@edunet.dk)
Mon, 20 May 1996 13:40:15 +0200


At 12:04 +0200 20/05/96, David S. Miller wrote:
> From: "Povl H. Pedersen" <pope@edunet.dk>
>
> Some people suggested that instead of rolling this into the kernel, they
> would wait until a non-Mach version was available. I do NOT think so. In my
> opinion, it should be included in the kernel tree as soon as it is declared
>
>No microkernel bloatage in the mainline sources thank you... Anyone
>who thinks a mach port type deal of Linux should end up in Linus's
>tree "needs to have their head examined".

Why shouldn't it end up in the source tree ? It has nothing to do with
bloating the kernel. Au contraire. A Mach port removes stuff from the
kernel (and puts it in microkernel).

And generally, a Mach version would make it easier to get an initial port
of Linux running on more platforms.

>Besides a real native port would be much faster. ;)

Not much I guess. You can simplify lots of the driver functionality I
think, so that you can reduce most of the overhead to the overhead of
function calls.

According to OSF, it was not much slower than the direct one on a x86 PC.

And, I have kind of bought the idea of the microkernel / VM.

---
Povl H. Pedersen                                   NetGuide Scandinavia AB
Phone: +45 8618 1823    Cellular: +45 4093 5511    Fax:   +45 8612 4680
Homepage: http://www.edunet.dk/~pope / e-mail: mailto:pope@edunet.dk
"This is Apple - Expect the impossible" - Dr. Gilbert Amelio at WWDC-96