Re: Can we move device drivers into user-space?

From: Bernd Petrovitsch
Date: Mon Feb 27 2012 - 06:18:07 EST


On Son, 2012-02-26 at 17:03 -0500, Richard Yao wrote:
[...]
> I think it is nice for people to be interested in kernel design and
> even if they have bad ideas, letting them discuss their ideas
> generally gives them the opportunity to learn why they are bad, which
> could generate good ideas in the process.

Part of the learning experience is (or should be IMHO) to - at least -
try it out in someway at some point and not only "discuss" it or throw
ideas around.
And that is: look for one target like a char driver or a filesystem or
what ever one likes or seems fit and try to produce a somewhat working
prototype.
The performance point is probably valid but not every driver is a high
performance issue.
As for "filesystems", there is already FUSE around BTW. And IIRC there
were similar efforts for block and/or char drivers.

And of course, the "try it out" means primarily the OP - see the other
mail.

> microkernel designs are
> nice, but Linux is not the right basis for one.

Yes, that's the reason that everyone uses a microkernel today. SCNR ....
And Mach got at times so fat so that people considered something else.

Bernd
--
Bernd Petrovitsch Email : bernd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
LUGA : http://www.luga.at

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