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New OSes that have come out are pretty much universally microkernels. Fuchsia from Google is on a lot of their devices, and is a microkernel. SeL4 and QNX are m
by pclmulqdq 2y ago
New OSes that have come out are pretty much universally microkernels. Fuchsia from Google is on a lot of their devices, and is a microkernel. SeL4 and QNX are microkernels for security and safety critical devices. I believe that Firecracker from AWS is also sort of microkernel-like (but pretends to be Linux). If you are building the device, the kernel, and the software, chances are that you are using a microkernel in 2024.
Windows and the Unix OSes just have a lot more market penetration, strong network effects, and a big first-mover advantage. That means that when you are buying your OS or your hardware or your software, you're probably stuck with a monokernel.
- RetroTechie 2y agoLet's hope monolithic kernels are indeed an historical artefact, and over time microkernels will replace them in most popular OSes. A few % performance hit? (if that) Who cares. Security & reliability is where it's at these days.
- Xarodon 2y agoLots and lots of home users care more about the few % of performance than the nebulous "extra security". I have friends who use their desktop for gaming only, literally nothing else, I guarantee they don't care about the extra security a microkernel claims to offer.
- mike_hearn 2y agoFirecracker is a hypervisor, it pretends to be hardware not Linux.