On Thu, Jun 15, 2000 at 10:23:51AM +0700, Lithium wrote:
> Linux is macrokernel and HURD is microkernel,
> what the different about that?
>
Hi,
First, you want to purchase AST's Modern Operating Systems (or a similar
book). Briefly, a microkernel exports as much as possible from the kernel
such that normal kernel bound functionality is in userspace. This keeps
the kernel much smaller than a traditional monolithic kernel, which Linux
is an example of, and, inherently, reduces the chance that an error in the
nfs driver or ext2fs driver will crash the system. Why is this useful?
For two reasons: first is is elegant, second it subscribes to the standard
coding practice modularity. They question then is why does not everyone use
microkernels? Well, they are very slow because a lot of the time is spent in
context switching (since all drivers are now in userspace and are not simple
procedure calls).
Regards,
-Neal
--
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Neal H Walfield [EMAIL PROTECTED]
University of Massachusetts at Lowell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Fax: 603-415-3645 Phone: N/A (London)
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
-- H. L. Mencken
