Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!redstone.interpath.net!ddsw1!news.kei.com! MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!ndl.co.uk!rad From: r...@ndl.co.uk (Rich Deighton) Subject: General Linux Development Message-ID: < Cw2796.6Ir@ndl.co.uk> Keywords: linux development Organization: Network Designers Limited Date: Tue, 13 Sep 1994 08:22:17 GMT Lines: 6 Are there any far reaching goals for Linux such that there is a point where the kernel is _finished_? Will development just continue until the kernel suffers from severe featuritus? Just a point that I found interesting to cogitate over and was hoping would spark off an interesting discussion.
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development Path: bga.com!news.sprintlink.net!redstone.interpath.net!ddsw1!panix! MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet! info!iialan From: iia...@iifeak.swan.ac.uk (Alan Cox) Subject: Re: General Linux Development Message-ID: < Cw4DwF.KHG@info.swan.ac.uk> Keywords: linux development Sender: n...@info.swan.ac.uk Nntp-Posting-Host: iifeak.swan.ac.uk Organization: Institute For Industrial Information Technology References: < Cw2796.6Ir@ndl.co.uk> Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 12:41:02 GMT Lines: 27 In article < Cw2796....@ndl.co.uk> r...@ndl.co.uk (Rich Deighton) writes: >Are there any far reaching goals for Linux such that there is a point where >the kernel is _finished_? Will development just continue until the kernel >suffers from severe featuritus? Featuritis is one thing I hope it doesn't develop. It's also one reason why getting the kernel more modular important. Having a driver for everything is all well and good so long as they can be downloaded seperately. The core kernel certainly is far from finished in all respects. It lacks enough loadable module support, the buffer cache needs cleaning up to handle non blockmapped filesystems (like NFS), the scheduler is a walking disaster area, and the 1.1.x network as will go into 1.2.0 has some very naive assumptions about drivers and can't cleanly layer protocols (this lot is under work - I guess people are working on some of the others too). Those I don't see as featuritis but definite improvements. I guess one thing that would be a good general project for someone wanting to go kernel hacking would be to read through all the code spot and clean up duplication and switch and improve algorithms where they stand out as bad (again the scheduler comes to mind). Like IBM have squashed OS/2 for 2.2, to squash Linux. Alan -- ..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,, // Alan Cox // iia...@www.linux.org.uk // GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU // ``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''