> The main issue I have with microkernels is that they don't solve any problem that I have. > > […] > > Do microkernels offer any application-visible features t

> The main issue I have with microkernels is that they don't solve any problem that I have. > > […] > > Do microkernels offer any application-visible features that I don't have today with Linux? To the best of my knowledge they do not. Don't you hate having to upgrade your whole kernel (memory manager, scheduler, fs, network stack) just to fix a small-but-annoying problem with your GPU (for example tearing)? With a microkernel you could update that driver without updating the rest of the kernel, or of the OS. Yes "OS", because an update of the kernel often requires an update of the corresponding user-space programs (lmsensors, libdrm, mesa, X11, libalsa, iptables). If our systems were built upon microkernels and developed with strict boundaries between components it would be much easier to maintain them. However I think Torvarlds has a point when it says that going down the path of microkernels means turning many low-level problems into IPC problems, most of which are not yet solved or not solved in a way that is compatible (performance-wise) with current hardware. Let's hope research and the brewing libre hardware community will tackle this problem.