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#1 2014-08-21 13:43:10

Janarto
Member
From: Paris
Registered: 2008-09-23
Posts: 80

Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

Linus made the comment that he wanted the kernel to shrink for embedded products

“I'd love for Linux to shrink again... We've clearly been bloating up the kernel a lot over the past 20 years.... It's a problem if we want to push the envelope into embedded devices, in particular.” - Linus Torvalds.

Source : https://www.linux.com/news/featured-blo … oper-panel

It seems like a nice goal, but is it realistic while android is trying to slim down ?

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#2 2014-08-21 16:35:46

karol
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Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

Janarto wrote:

It seems like a nice goal, but is it realistic while android is trying to slim down ?

I don't understand what you mean here.


Maybe some "Leanux" work is in order, but how do you do it? Leave features out, compile in a super-special way, rewrite space-hogging parts or ...?

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#3 2014-08-21 16:45:06

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
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Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

karol wrote:

rewrite space-hogging parts or ...?

We can hope.

Perusing a bit of drcouzelis's blog reintroduced me to MenuetOS which I had only looked briefly at several years ago.  It is a full OS (written in assembly) with GUI, editor, web browser, and (some) utilities, and it call fits on a 1.44MB floppy.

Certainly Linux handles a lot more than MinuetOS - but it is a bit of proof of what can be done efficiently.

Last edited by Trilby (2014-08-21 22:06:27)


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#4 2014-08-21 17:13:25

blackout23
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Registered: 2011-11-16
Posts: 781

Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

Just put everything into systemd and make Linux a microkernel. ;-)

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#5 2014-08-21 21:17:16

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

@Trilby
It's MenuetOS :-)
There's also http://kolibrios.org/en/

I'm wondering how much payload can you fit into 64Mbit ROMs that are included on some motherboards.

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#6 2014-08-21 22:08:54

Trilby
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Registered: 2011-11-29
Posts: 29,442
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Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

Oops - fixed.


"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

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#7 2014-08-22 17:18:24

Jristz
Member
From: America/Santiago
Registered: 2011-06-11
Posts: 1,022

Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

blackout23 wrote:

Just put everything into systemd and make Linux a microkernel. ;-)

An then Lennart will talk in the mailisting to call fo shink the systemd and start posrting systemd part to linux, then linux become big and Linus will talk about how systemd bloat linux again and remove it and the infinite circle start...

Well if someone want shrink the kernel the they need build the bare minimal to work and not enable SHYNNY_NEW_DRIVER that will never be used in the enveded system.


Well, I suppose that this is somekind of signature, no?

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#8 2014-08-23 20:02:35

W.F.Cody
Member
From: Ghent
Registered: 2010-11-18
Posts: 155

Re: Linus at LKDS : "I'd love for Linux to shrink again..."

I think enabling usage of the "killer features" of Linux (drivers mostly) on alternative kernels could open up for some healthy competition. In a similar vein to the NetBSD "anykernel", which is already used on top of L4 in Genode OS....


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Any package of mine is up for grabs. If you think you could mantain it better - just contact me!

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