Re: ExAmour
* Richard Stallman [2020-06-24 06:57]: > I understand now what an exokernel is. Thanks. > > How does this particular project relate to GNU? > > Because an exokernel does only a small partof what an ordinary kernel > does, an exokernel does not replace an ordinary kernel. So far I know that is not a GNU project. It was initiative or call for action by mailing list member roba9...@gmail.com to make a kernel for GNU of those properties. Jean
Re: ExAmour
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] I understand now what an exokernel is. Thanks. How does this particular project relate to GNU? Because an exokernel does only a small partof what an ordinary kernel does, an exokernel does not replace an ordinary kernel. -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
Re: ExAmour - Replace the now effectively BSD licensed Linux Kernel?
If such a thing were created, to replace the Linux kernel (which seemingly never defends it's copyrights and thus appears to be effectively BSD: killing enthusiasm for contributions from non-industry programmers) Would the FSF actually defend it's copyrights? If now why should anyone contribute? If derivative works can be taken proprietary (no redistribution) (like grsecurity has done with both the linux kernel AND gcc) what's the draw for anyone to contribute? On 2020-06-23 12:39, Jean Louis wrote: * Richard Stallman [2020-06-23 07:01]: [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider]]]
Re: ExAmour
* Richard Stallman [2020-06-23 07:01]: > [[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider]]] > [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] > [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > > > https://github.com/remysaissy/examour-exokernel > > > >From what I understood It's an attempt to a GNU exokernel. > > What would that mean? >From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exokernel Exokernel is an operating system kernel developed by the MIT Parallel and Distributed Operating Systems group,[1] and also a class of similar operating systems. 1. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/exo/ Operating systems generally present hardware resources to applications through high-level abstractions such as (virtual) file systems. The idea behind exokernels is to force as few abstractions as possible on application developers, enabling them to make as many decisions as possible about hardware abstractions. Exokernels are tiny, since functionality is limited to ensuring protection and multiplexing of resources, which is considerably simpler than conventional microkernels' implementation of message passing and monolithic kernels' implementation of high-level abstractions. Implemented applications are called library operating systems; they may request specific memory addresses, disk blocks, etc. The kernel only ensures that the requested resource is free, and the application is allowed to access it. This low-level hardware access allows the programmer to implement custom abstractions, and omit unnecessary ones, most commonly to improve a program's performance. It also allows programmers to choose what level of abstraction they want, high, or low. Exokernels can be seen as an application of the end-to-end principle to operating systems, in that they do not force an application program to layer its abstractions on top of other abstractions that were designed with different requirements in mind. For example, in the MIT Exokernel project, the Cheetah web server stores preformatted Internet Protocol packets on the disk, the kernel provides safe access to the disk by preventing unauthorized reading and writing, but how the disk is abstracted is up to the application or the libraries the application uses.
Re: ExAmour
[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider]]] [[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]] [[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]] > https://github.com/remysaissy/examour-exokernel > >From what I understood It's an attempt to a GNU exokernel. What would that mean? -- Dr Richard Stallman Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org) Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org) Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
Re: ExAmour
Hi, On Monday, 22 June 2020 16:22:23 EEST Ro Ba wrote: > I just wanted someone to notice this: > > https://github.com/remysaissy/examour-exokernel > > From what I understood It's an attempt to a GNU exokernel. Exokernel is a good idea on the paper while you're on the coast. However, it has a quite specific use-cases (and those use-cases excludes desktop/server use). Microkernel is a far more better fits for the generic desktop/server/'embedded (not PIC)' use cases. > > I don't know how to experiment it being just an end-user, but someone could > find it interesting and maybe continue the development. What I'm actually seen is a barebone for the kernel (not completed by the way) and a few libs/drivers code. From my point of view - there are far more better abadoned projects to start with. Anyway there is no value there. > > I like the idea of direct-to-hardware performance and the security an > exokernel is claimed to have regarding the kernel calls. Direct to hardware access and security aren't a good friends anyway. Going further - if you want to provide a direct generalized access to the hardware (i.e. an access to a storage media via memory mapping) then your exokernel will contain the *all* of specific hardware drivers. And this is actually implemented (not in this particular way, but is a too close - I guess you're able to map media storage space via memory mapping calls) in any of the monolithic kernels (indeed, you're getting a layers of abstractions additionally). Falling back to the security - it's not so simple like it sounds, in most of the cases restrictions are going not to the particular hardware, but to the stuff this hardware provides i.e. TCP ports provided via tcp/ip stack works with networking hardware. This is also applicable for the media storage - usually restrictions are going to the specific region of media (that's where filesystems coming into place). > > Hope to see in the future a way to choose between micro/monolithic/exo > kernel, talking about GNU and Linux distributions. Those systems are quite different between each other to make this choice easy. For example a libc will looks different. Sure, it's still possible to have nearly the same set of user applications, but the system libraries, daemons etc will be completely different. Thanks, have a nice day. signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part.
