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GNU/Linux naming debate



>From the flamethrower of Robert L Krawitz <rlk at alum.mit.edu>...
> A highly specialized, very minimal run time executive might take a few
> weeks to write; a highly functional, general purpose operating system
> kernel (not a "microkernel" which needs a lot of services to function
> as such) is quite another matter.  Even DOS took quite a bit more than
> that :-)

We're not in disagreement here.  I started out my career on TOPS-10/TOPS-20,
which were huge pieces of code for their time.  The nice thing about Linux
circa 1992 was its elegant simplicity.  By comparison, today's Linux has
gotten much fatter than the old TOPS-20 system, but retains most of its
elegance.  And of course, it's measured against the likes of Windows, which
have bloated beyond the comprehension of us '80s-vintage hardware developers.

I wrote:
>    Here are a couple of kernel developments in which I've participated:

Robert wrote:
> I wouldn't call either of these a general purpose operating system.
> They're both highly specialized, very restricted I/O processors.

Indeed.  I didn't say they were anything other than specialized
kernels, and in fact I spelled out what their special niche was, and
what Linus' initial kernel was for (a t.e., and later self-compilation).
Why the confrontational attitude?

> Comparing them to a general purpose operating system kernel
> (especially one that was to implement POSIX semantics), however, isn't
> very useful in this context.

I disagree here.  Linus was able to write a kernel in a matter of a few
months, and make it useful for compiling itself.  Today's Linux is now
a "general purpose operating system", but the 1992 versions (I started
with 0.98pl5) were a far cry from it.  Yet I was able to do quite a lot 
with the restricted early versions.

My point in posting this was that Linus took a different approach from
the FSF.  He was able to divvy up the development effort into smaller
pieces than the Hurd required, and thereby leverage the efforts of a
far larger number of people during the crucial development stages
between summer 1992 and the 2.0 release (1995?  I forget).  It was
important to start with something small enough to be done by a single
under-funded individual, yet big enough to be useful in an initial version.

I've worked with kernels and O/Ses of several flavors, hence my bias toward
discussing this aspect.

-rich
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