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> i predict that tanenbaum will ultimately win the famous monolithic vs. microkernel design debate. Tanenbaum already lost the debate a long time ago. Minix i

> i predict that tanenbaum will ultimately win the famous monolithic vs. microkernel design debate. Tanenbaum already lost the debate a long time ago. Minix is running in Intel CPUs but it's hardly exercising the benefits of a micro-kernel architecture. General-purpose PCs are running mono-kernels. Maybe the micro-kernel will prove useful at some point in the future, but that's just theoretical. But _this_ war was lost. Maybe they'll win the next one!

a-dub 5y ago
i predict that ultimately the linux kernel will prove too difficult to fully secure. i predict that the successor will ultimately be a microkernel architecture with ipc that is built from the ground up to be hardened against hostile components and will be accelerated in hardware. i predict we'll see something like realtime cryptographic proofs of both the identity and correct execution of operating system component code and the code of user programs.
- throwaway984393 5y ago
  I think the successor is multikernel. Modern systems trip over themselves to provide isolated runtime environments within one kernel, but it's all a waste once you pop a hole in the one kernel. The answer to that is virtualization of entire kernels, ala Firecracker. Rather than tying ourselves into knots trying to extend the one kernel, we can just run 50 kernels, and have abstractions to connect them into a distributed OS (think Plan9). This allows the kernel to be simpler, provides an easier path to standardized interfaces between components, and lets us infinitely scale a single system, with stronger isolation guarantees. It's basically a microkernel but the components are farther apart. And because of that you can do things like have multiple different kernel versions interoperate over one stable abstraction/API/whatever. SSI clusters are another example of this, they just happen to be using the same kernel, but they don't have to.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
pjmlp 5y ago
If he lost why do Linux fakes microkernels with hypervisors and containers to start with? Also Android has tamed Linux into a pseudo-microkernel with Project Treble, where all drivers are their own processes using Android IPC. On Android traditional Linux drivers are considered "legacy" and kept around for compatibility with upstream and previous Android versions pre-Treble.

a-dub 5y ago

i predict that ultimately the linux kernel will prove too difficult to fully secure. i predict that the successor will ultimately be a microkernel architecture with ipc that is built from the ground up to be hardened against hostile components and will be accelerated in hardware. i predict we'll see something like realtime cryptographic proofs of both the identity and correct execution of operating system component code and the code of user programs.

throwaway984393 5y ago
I think the successor is multikernel. Modern systems trip over themselves to provide isolated runtime environments within one kernel, but it's all a waste once you pop a hole in the one kernel. The answer to that is virtualization of entire kernels, ala Firecracker. Rather than tying ourselves into knots trying to extend the one kernel, we can just run 50 kernels, and have abstractions to connect them into a distributed OS (think Plan9). This allows the kernel to be simpler, provides an easier path to standardized interfaces between components, and lets us infinitely scale a single system, with stronger isolation guarantees. It's basically a microkernel but the components are farther apart. And because of that you can do things like have multiple different kernel versions interoperate over one stable abstraction/API/whatever. SSI clusters are another example of this, they just happen to be using the same kernel, but they don't have to.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

pjmlp 5y ago

If he lost why do Linux fakes microkernels with hypervisors and containers to start with? Also Android has tamed Linux into a pseudo-microkernel with Project Treble, where all drivers are their own processes using Android IPC. On Android traditional Linux drivers are considered "legacy" and kept around for compatibility with upstream and previous Android versions pre-Treble.