On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 8:12 PM, StephanT <stman937-linewbie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
John,
Could you, please elaborate on this.
>>Basically, this boils down to the ancient debate of microkernel vs monolithic
>>kernel.
This is already a very long thread and my simplified explanation will probably be incomplete of all details, so I do not plan to argue this further in advance.
Basically, Linux is not a pure monolithic kernel because it has kernel modules, but when you load a kernel module it shares the same global namespace with all other kernel code. Therefore, there is one program/binary blob that manages memory, controls hardware, schedules processes, and does all privileged tasks. In a microkernel drivers could have their own global namespace and not have direct access to memory.
A google of the term "microkernel vs monolithic kernel" will gives you months of reading material far better than mine.
--
John
