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Re: Mach Kernels



R Joseph Wright wrote:
> 
> What is the big advantage of using a mach microkernel?  Is it used
> because the developers didn't want to reinvent the wheel and thus chose
> to use a preexisting platform from which to begin a new os?

AFAIK, yes. But Mach also offers a rich set of semantics to work from.
However, the Hurd itself is mostly microkernel independent and could be
ported
to other microkernels.

> Or is it because it has special stability features?  I know the hurd is
> said to be crash-proof.  And apple's new os x runs on a mach kernel,
> doesn't it?  They claim it is crash-proof.  Are they doing a similar
> thing with os x as the hurd?

Note that all other mach based OS are single server, while the Hurd is a
multi server
OS.

No operating system is crash-proof, because of bugs. Also, the Hurd does
not handle out
of ressources (out of memory, out of disk space) conditions gracefully.
Apart from that,
if one non-essential Hurd server dies (crashes), the Hurd will survive
though. Maybe
this is what you mean.

Thanks,
Marcus


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