Does bloat mean too many features? In that case I'd say those features are there because someone needs them. They don't all have to be loaded. In a monolithic k

Does bloat mean too many features? In that case I'd say those features are there because someone needs them. They don't all have to be loaded. In a monolithic kernel that has modules, load the ones you need. In a microkernel, load and unload as needed on the go. Then there is the support issue. In Linux, all the modules must be maintained by the kernel team. This may constitute bloat as the team may have an unnecessary amount of code to maintain. Some modules may only be used by a few people. The issue isn't the features, but rather Linus's philosophy. From his posts, it seems he like to keep changing kernel APIs as he sees fit. If you have many modules, this creates problems. Without a strict API, you will frequently break modules and thus create a lot of maintenance work. Fixed APIs are both very important and very good for large scale collaboration. Without standards like POSIX or the Windows APIs, we wouldn't be where we are today. The second aspect to this is security. Say you built a very stable API and let others make modules as they need them. In a monolithic model, to maintain security you must audit every module. Thus for Linux to stay secure, the kernel team would need to either declare many less used modules as "tainting the kernel" or audit them all: a lot of work. In a microkernel model, the kernel team, so long as they designed it right, can let users build modules without audit. Saying something has too much bloat is ambiguous to the point of being useless. Many people use that term simply as meaning slow, or a lot of code, or even poorly designed code. It's always better to describe things precisely. If it has too many features, say so. If it has bad design, then state that.