GNU-Friends: The Microkernel Experiment is Going On

“This article is a response to an earlier article by Miles
Nordin in Linux Journal, where he expressed his personal feelings
about microkernels and monolithic kernels. We will try do present a
different point of view. Of course, we are also biased, as we are
both young hackers who try to turn the GNU Hurd into a software
useful for everyday-work; for those who don’t know it (yes, we’re
abusing this article as an advertisement): The Hurd is a collection
of Daemons, currently running on top of the Mach microkernel and
providing a replacement for the Unix kernel together with the GNU C
Library.

“Miles Nordin claimed that microkernels are dead already. But
this is not completely true. The first generation of microkernels,
which were in fact no real microkernels, are dead. But there is a
new generation, which uses a radically different strategy than the
original (so-called) microkernels. Thus, microkernels are still a
research topic, and today they look more promising than ever
before. By now, this is just something we claim, but read on, and
you’ll find out why we do so…”

Complete
Story

Related Story:

Linux Journal: Obsolete Microkernel Dooms Mac OS X to Lag Linux in
Performance(May 29, 2002)