Yoshiki Ohshima wrote: > If there is any real operating system researchers around, they would > "raise eyebrows" when they hear the idea of letting the kids learn > Linux as *the* example. Remember the discussion between Linus > Torvalds and Andrew Tannenbaum, and Tannenbaum was right about Linux > has nothing great in regards to its technology. Linus was great at > forming the community by listening people, but its success wasn't > about its technology. (There are arguably better systems like > OpenBSD. And, it wasn't conceivable to actually do in that short > time, an OS-less system would have made more sense for the target > system; as you know, Ivan was thinking the possibility of "full Python > machine".)
1. It's very unlikely that kids will have any inclination to look at the kernel source. 2. Tannenbaum complained about Linux not being a microkernel. So far there is STILL no evidence that microkernels are better as a design -- certainly not if you look at the quality of operating systems implemented as microkernels. 3. Kernel code may not always look nice or straightforward (though I wouldn't use OpenBSD as an example of something better than Linux in that respect), however Unixlike systems' interface between kernel and userspace, and standard set of libc functions (more or less what POSIX is supposed to define) is at this point in history the greatest, unsurpassed achievement among all APIs made for any purpose. That includes all subsequent attempts to "improve" it in an incompatible way. Consistently designed system of file descriptors and operations on them, clear separation and mapping between userspace and kernel primitives, security tied to attributes of a very small set of objects are the reason why all open source systems that went anywhere, implement this interface, and not something else. Constant attempts to continue development of a system without using those principles are the reason why Windows requires such an enormous amount of effort for each version to be released. -- Alex _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel