From: db1@ukc.ac.uk (D.Bolla) Subject: Few comments about Linux Date: 16 Feb 1992 12:29:46 GMT
Hello !
This time I have few comments to make, hopefully they are useful :-)
1) I see a some people would like to load linux with a lot of stuff.
What I remembar is:
DOS emulation
Strange ( Possibly useful ) MMU management
Got a letter saying that quota, cpu usage, other stuff for checking the
user behaviour is useful.
Other stuff... may possibly follow.....
2) My personal view of Linux is as follow
Linux should be FAST and SIMPLE since it runs on machines that are not
the fastest in the world and since it should be easy to understand.
The point is that if you need a system with all the gadgets then you buy
Sun or other stuff......
3) Therefore, what are we going to put in the kernel ?
A simple memory management... 64Mb x task and 64 Max tasks are ok
After all... how fast will the 386 be with 64 tasks ??
This memory model keeps the page table in memory and this is a GOOD
thing for speed.
A simple mode for doing things... What springs in mind is PS... I am not
saying that a syscall for asking things to the kernel is wrong. I am
saying that it will make things more complicated giving a low enhancement
in performance. And you have to solve problems like passing lists
and receiving lists... not the simplest thing in the world.
BTW It is possible to have a "standard" way to interrogate /dev/kmem
even without using a syscall. ( A library will do it, outside the
kernel)
4) TCP... well we need TCP for X11 :-) Therefore we can't leave that out
but it will be nice to have it as a kind of optional ( after all
not everybody has all the disk needed to load X11 )
Solaris is going to have loadable kernel drivers..... Is there a simple
way to have this ?
I am not trying to stop people to make linux "better" I am just saying that
the more complex things are the easyer it is to have bugs in them and we
don't want bugs around, don't we ?
Let's try to do things in a simple way ! Let's try to remembar that the
MOST important thing is to have the interface to the OS right. The kernel
can be simple and limited but who cares... as long as it WORKS !
Damiano