Re: Power Mac Port and Mach 3.0 kernel

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Craig" == Craig Oda <craig@example.com> writes:

    Craig> On Tue, 13 Feb 1996, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
    >> I'm fairly sure that Linux does not use the Mach microkernel,
    >> and I'm also fairly sure that Linux cannot use the Mach
    >> microkernel because although the Mach kernel is freely
    >> distributable for research purposes, it is encumbered with a
    >> no-commercial-use license.  You can

    >> From the OSF Research Institute,

    Craig> The OSF Research Institute has made significant
    Craig> improvements and extensions to the original CMU Mach3.0
    Craig> microkernel, and the result, named OSF MK, is still
    Craig> available for free. The latest versions of OSF/1 are based
    Craig> on OSF MK but are encumbered by commercial licenses.
[snip]
    Craig> we started from an existing monolithic kernel and we wanted
    Craig> to maximize the code reuse ratio to make it easier to track
    Craig> new releases of Linux and leverage the Linux community
    Craig> effort.

But this is *not* Linux, this is a Linux-derived OS called "OSF MK".
Note the wording "track new releases of Linux".  Linux is obviously
the "existing monolithic kernel".  So they plan to keep up with new
releases of Linux, but OSF MK and Linux are not an integrated product
yet.

This is worth looking at, even if it's not a "multi-server".  There
are a lot of advantages to the micro-kernel architecture.  If the
micro-kernel itself is stable, then there's a lot more leeway for bugs
in everything else.  In the long run this is likely to be a lot more
modular than Linux with modules.  (I guess I was wrong, and you can't
run several single-servers at the same time; a single server is
exactly that, it would seem; it must be the only server running on top
of the kernel or it gets confused.  I think I now remember that the
single server also provides a lot more services, eg, file systems,
process management, and so on, than the modularity philosophy would
like.)

Do you have an URL offhand?

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com