> "Albert D. Cahalan" wrote:
>
> > If someone with great vision and design skills wants to create a
> > new API for Linux, we should seriously consider such a proposal.
That is IMHO a bad idea. Linux, because it follows the
traditional Unix monolithic kernel model, is already so obsolete that it
really isn't worth putting serious time into incompatible API
improvements. Its value right now is that it is a free, well-written and
POSIX-compatible open source Unix clone. Please leave it as such. Just
treat Linux as what it is: a legacy-compatible *interim* OS that provides
a nice, mostly-stable and well-known environment in which to develop
device drivers and OS guts (and apps, GUIs etc too).
Soon, probably within a year or two, a decent, open-source next
generation OS like Hurd (Microkernel), FluxOS (polymorphic virtual
machines/nested processes), Dolphin (exokernel), The Cache Kernel, or
another NGOS will be developed to the point where it can step in and
cannibalize the guts out of Linux to produce a fully-functional NGOS which
is suitable for mainstream use. With the Univerity of Utah OSKit having
been released, this process is well underway and accelerating rapidly. At
that point, then, we all can dump 25+ years of accumulated Unix API
brokenness and move on to a clean, modern, well-designed OS.
Linux will then exist only as some sort of NGOS legacy
compatibility wrapper, like WINE, and the real Linux can gracefully fade
away into history, its "springboard" role having run its course. This is
the natural way of things. If you want to "fix" Unix/Linux, do it right
and rework everything ground-up from first principles. Just MHO of
course.
Jon
--- 'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in becoming one with God.' - Scientist G. Richard Seed
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