Reiser4 and kernel inclusion [LWN.net]

Reiser4 and kernel inclusion

Posted Sep 23, 2005 14:11 UTC (Fri) by zlynx (subscriber, #2285)
In reply to: Reiser4 and kernel inclusion by NAR
Parent article: Reiser4 and kernel inclusion

Apparently my analogy is just about perfect. Edison's lightbulb attempts didn't all simply fail to work. Some were too dim. Some burned out too quickly.

Problems appear and are fixed, until it works. You demonstrated one problem with database filesystems. Do you think that no one else has noticed that problem or thought of ways to fix it? No so!

Are you aware that the "should be done in userspace" argument is exactly why Linux was supposed to fail? It isn't a microkernel. Microkernels were supposed to be the greatest thing ever. Well, they aren't. The performance penalties for all that protection are too great.

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Reiser4 and kernel inclusion

Posted Sep 23, 2005 14:46 UTC (Fri) by dvdeug (subscriber, #10998) [Link]

What should be done in user space is not simply a microkernel/normal-Unix kernel question, though. Every new feature is a question of whether it should be done in user space. Should a kernel handle video or leave it to user space? NT handles it in kernel, a much criticised decision. Linux offers a kernel-space implementation and a more powerful user-space implementation. Should emulation be done in kernel? Floating point emulation and supporting instructions from newer CPUs have been contested, but I think both have gone into released kernels. Should the kernel include a JVM? If not, should it continue supporting OSF executables on Alpha and x86 executables on AMD-64?

User-space or not is just not a question that should be answered with a knee-jerk response.

Reiser4 and kernel inclusion

Posted Sep 30, 2005 11:09 UTC (Fri) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

For the video question: I think yes, it is a mistake to have the Xserver
do the card settings. Really. The Xserver should have exposed interfaces
to the card, and the kernel should know about the state, so that switching
VTs, resetting state after X crash or suspend will work.

For the drawing commands itself, something like the DRM module should be
used for 2D drawing, too.

Reiser4 and kernel inclusion

Posted Sep 29, 2005 7:46 UTC (Thu) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]

Even better - Edison finally fixed his problems by ditching his ideas and "borrowing" someone else's.

I think you'll find that the lightbulb, as finally produced by Edison, is a pretty close match to the lightbulb as patented by Joseph Swan. Oh - and that patent is dated the same or earlier than Edison's patents.

Cheers,
Wol