Component-based Operating System.

[Chad Perrin]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 05:54:47PM -0400, Chuck Robey wrote:
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> Ivan Voras wrote:
> > Juan Carlos Villalobos wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I am writing a paper on Component-based Operating Systems. I just
> >> wanted to know if FreeBSD is an Operating System engineered based on
> >> Components.
> >>
> >> I appreciate your input on this.
> > 
> > "Components" is a wide, wide term. Since FreeBSD as an operating system
> > consists of separate libraries, headers, executables, and both the
> > kernel and the userland have subsystems that are more-or-less autonomic
> > and independent, you could say it's componentized. You need to be more
> > specific to get a more specific answer.
> > 
> > 
> 
> Yeah, that's true, but not very informative.  Look, I don't follow OSes all that
> much anymore, but if I had to call up an OS that would be made up of more of a
> set of indenpendent pieces, I think I would choose the GNU Hurd OS.  From
> everything I read, it was never very successful, if one counts the ability to
> return some good throughput as being successful ... or, maybe they have some
> other characteristic which I'm not aware of.
> 
> Anyhow, the HURD (at least in concept) is far, far more of a component based OS
> than anything else I'm aware of is.  It's an interesting concept, at the very
> least, and I do understand it works.

There are a bunch of modular microkernel architectures out there.
Another that comes immediately to mind is the MIT Exokernel, for
instance.

Of course, last I checked, nobody was calling them "component-based"
operating systems (especially since, in most cases, they're research
kernels with a fine dusting of barely enough stuff to make them run over
the top, and not really useful OSes).  Microsoft has been using the
phrase "component based" to talk about some of its OS research efforts,
but as far as I'm aware MS has abandoned that market-speak.

So . . . I still have no idea what the OP means by "component-based
operating systems".

-- 
Chad Perrin [ content licensed PDL: http://pdl.apotheon.org ]
Friedrich Nietzche: "Those who know that they are profound strive for
clarity.  Those who would like to seem profound to the crowd strive for
obscurity."
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