From: Adam Flinton 

Gregg N wrote:

> Adam Flinton  wrote in
> news:7093b6.633f3d{at}harborwebs.com:
>
>
>>Linux is a kernel.
>>
>
>
> No, the Linux kernel is a kernel. Linux is a class of operating system
> based on this kernel. This is the common usage of the name. It was inspired
> by Andrew Tanenbaum's operating system called MINIX.
>
> Read the description at the top of http://www.linux.org/.
>
> Gregg

Fine by me.

I was discussing this the other day near the coffee machine. You know the
GNU Hurd thingy....if Hurd & linux kernels could be swapped in &
out (e.g. on boot via grub/lilo) i.e. they were interchangeable at at
kernel level....then what do you have?

Is Linux then Linux/Hurd?

What happens if IBM arch'es AIX kernel & HP arch'es the HPUX kernel
& Sun the SunOS kernel etc so that they can be swapped in & out in
the same manner?

i.e. you know IBM are shoving in tons of work into Linux. Ditto HP &
Sun. In fact I can't think of a single Unix vendor which hasn't put work
into Linux (inc SCO ).

At the same time they've got to support people running their version of Unix.

So why not simplify life by reducing the specific code right back to the
kernel? i.e. if you're on x86 Linux & you want to give solaris for x86
a go then why have 2 copies of vi on the disk etc.etc.? SImply d/l the
solaris x86 kernel & shove it into your lilo boot list. Ditto for AIX
if you're running AIX on PPC or HPUX if running Linux on Itanium.

OK so for a given bit of hardware you might want some specific code e.g.
the Sun new IP stack & IP handling chipset or some specific big IBM PPC
kit but that's the case anyway with different bits of kit.

Adam

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