Re: microkernels (I'm not a huge fan of systemd)
On Tue, 15 Jul 2014, Steve Litt wrote:
On Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:32:29 -0400
Frank McCormick <debianlist@videotron.ca> wrote:
On 07/15/2014 10:37 AM, Steve Litt wrote:
[snip]
It would be interesting to read Linus's comments on
MicroKernels...and why Linux is the way it is. Has he ever commented ?
As I remember, and I could be wrong, he said he went monolithic because
that's what he could do quickly, by himself. The long road to hurd kind
of proved that microkernel is difficult to implement.
One of my favorite sayings is "The perfect is the enemy of the good".
If a djinni offered me the chance to snuff out of existence a single
phrase of my choosing, and if I were foolish enough to accept the
offer, that'd be the one I'd pick.
I think that's why he went monolithic. A lot of things never get
done at all because people insist on doing it the very best way, and
never get out of the planning stage.
In 1851 H Melville wrote
<http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm>:
| Finally: It was stated at the outset, that this system would not be
| here, and at once, perfected. You cannot but plainly see that I have
| kept my word. But I now leave my cetological System standing thus
| unfinished, even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with
| the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower. For
| small erections may be finished by their first architects; grand
| ones, true ones, ever leave the copestone to posterity. God keep me
| from ever completing anything. This whole book is but a draught—nay,
| but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and
| Patience!
-wes
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