I also think it would depend on what you would want the OS to do. But it does seem that so much of the innovation in the last ten years -- mobile, embedded, server, appliance -- starts with the kernel and peels off whatever is not needed. No need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Especially if it scales.
-zridling
Thanks for pointing that out.
I try to be open minded about a lot of the criticism directed at Linux. But it's getting increasingly harder to remain civil while hearing people bashing a working system when they don't provide anything concrete to show how it could be done better. All I usually hear is how it "sucks" based on some pet theory or a design paradigm that's found in an academic paper -
and never anywhere else.Real world software design and implementation is a very different beast than some pie-in-the-sky whitepaper or PhD thesis.
Look no further than Cobb's relational database model for one example. Most (and possibly every) relational database that has ever been coded deviates to a greater or lesser degree from Cobb's rules. But while these products may not have the mathematical "purity" of relational theory, they do work. And even Cobb has reluctantly admitted, in his more candid moments, that the additional complexity of implementing a fully "correct" relational database product would likely outweigh any benefits to be gained by doing so.
The general rule I was taught about software development budgets ran something like this:
For any non-trivial software development effort:- The first 90% of the project will consume 90% of the available time and budget.
- The final 10% of the project will consume an additional 90% of the original allocated time and budget.
And while it's probably not a good idea to generalize, I have rarely seen major software projects where that wasn't the case. Especially if they were system-level development projects.
So what I would politely like to ask all the Linux trolls out there is this:
Next time you feel the need to bash the work of others, could you at least have the decency to show us some code you've written (and are willing to contribute) that does anything better than what's currently being used?
Because until you do, it's a little hard for those of us in the Linux world to see such comments as being anything other than "brag and bounce."
And we can scoop
that substance off a stable floor anytime we have a craving.
Submitting a correction or a replacement piece of code garners more credibility, and yields more benefit to everyone than sniping ever will.
Remember:
De nihilo nihil... as one wise Roman so aptly observed.
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