Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 21 Jan 1999 14:57:28 -0800 (PST) | From | "Jon M. Taylor" <> | Subject | Re: User vs. Kernel (was: To be smug, or not to be smug, that is , the question) |
| |
On Thu, 21 Jan 1999, Steven Roberts wrote:
> "Albert D. Cahalan" wrote: > > > If someone with great vision and design skills wants to create a > > new API for Linux, we should seriously consider such a proposal.
That is IMHO a bad idea. Linux, because it follows the traditional Unix monolithic kernel model, is already so obsolete that it really isn't worth putting serious time into incompatible API improvements. Its value right now is that it is a free, well-written and POSIX-compatible open source Unix clone. Please leave it as such. Just treat Linux as what it is: a legacy-compatible *interim* OS that provides a nice, mostly-stable and well-known environment in which to develop device drivers and OS guts (and apps, GUIs etc too).
Soon, probably within a year or two, a decent, open-source next generation OS like Hurd (Microkernel), FluxOS (polymorphic virtual machines/nested processes), Dolphin (exokernel), The Cache Kernel, or another NGOS will be developed to the point where it can step in and cannibalize the guts out of Linux to produce a fully-functional NGOS which is suitable for mainstream use. With the Univerity of Utah OSKit having been released, this process is well underway and accelerating rapidly. At that point, then, we all can dump 25+ years of accumulated Unix API brokenness and move on to a clean, modern, well-designed OS.
Linux will then exist only as some sort of NGOS legacy compatibility wrapper, like WINE, and the real Linux can gracefully fade away into history, its "springboard" role having run its course. This is the natural way of things. If you want to "fix" Unix/Linux, do it right and rework everything ground-up from first principles. Just MHO of course.
Jon
--- 'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in becoming one with God.' - Scientist G. Richard Seed
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |