Is anyone aware of a microkernel running a JVM/Karaf? I think Karaf could really take advantage of microkernels avoiding the need for Kubernetes, Docker and so on. Karaf is uniquely qualified for this by the fact that it has its own hooks to repositories, a console and monitoring with things like HawtIO. If the JVM/Karaf/Felix is running in the kernel itself and that is running on the hypervisor, there's not a lot of overhead. That's a stark contrast to the world of Kubernetes/Docker/VM/hypervisor.
With microkernels and rump kernels getting a lot of attention and development these days, there seems to be a great opportunity for Karaf running in a microkernel's Camel->Spring Boot->JVM->Docker->Kubernetes->Linux->VM->hypervisor->server. Camel K->JVM->Docker->Kubernetes->Linux->VM->hypervisor->server. Server->hypervisor->microkernel->JVM->Karaf(!) Recently I was reading a bit more about Camel K. That's Camel running directly on Kubernettes sans container - no Spring Boot, Karaf/Felix, or EAP. It's a move in the right direction, I think, but as I think about it Karaf seems uniquely poised to really jump to the front of the line. James Strachan recently commented that he was concerned about the future of the JVM due to the enormous overhead of running it in a Docker world. It isn't simply that Karaf/Felix can run on a JVM in the kernel space and avoid all the other overhead. OSGi bundles and Karaf features essentially allow one to create microservices as groups of bundles that can be deployed to separate Karaf instances or to the same Karaf instances. That simply isn't possible with Spring Boot, Camel K or other stacks. If anyone is aware of a microkernel or rump kernel or exokernel running a JVM/Karaf I'd really appreciate a pointer. Brad
