On Tue, 4 Jun 2002, Dhruv wrote:
> Does anyone know the advantages of one over the other ? I was finding
> this quite intriging. I hear Win32 uses a Microkernel and that Microkernel's
> are supposedly a more reliable lot -- well maybe not .
http://www.dina.dk/~abraham/Linus_vs_Tanenbaum.html
I happen to agree that a Microkernel architecture is superior - you put
your basic networking and messaging system into the kernel, and build
everything above that. There is very little debate on this - Linus is
mis-quoted if anyone suggested that he thinks monolithic is better. He
just has always been pragmatic in saying that "now" is better than later.
What basic architecture that Windows NT and "above" uses doesn't mean
much other than the fact that you can start with a good design, and poorly
implement it. The security and reliability problems with Microsoft
products have nothing to do with the basic architecture that they started
with, but poor implementation. Most of the implementation details are
related to marketing (IE: Microsoft is the most "responsive" computing
company - if some idiotic user asks for a brain-damaged feature, Microsoft
will implement it and roll it out to all users rather than educating that
user as to security/etc/etc issues)
I use Linux because it is Free Software(1) that is here right now, not
because I believe it is the best software that could be produced in the
future. I also currently use Intel-style PC's (Mostly AMD CPU's), and
that is the current price-point. I'm going to go heterogeneous with my
machines once some equally open alternative becomes available (IE: PowerPC
doesn't have enough vendors behind the architecture, etc).
(1) as in speech. As IBM often said last week at the showcase: Free
Software may be free, but it isn't cheap ;-)
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
See http://weblog.flora.ca/ for announcements, activities, and opinions
http://www.flora.ca/osss2002/ "Open Source Solutions Showcase" (Past)
Next: GOSLINGS (Getting Open Source and Linux INto GovernmentS)
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