What kinds of things would you want in the GNU OS?

[James Buster]

In article <10322 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <106584 at sun.Eng.Sun.COM> bitbug at lonewolf.sun.com (James Buster) writes:
>>By the way, what do you think about my idea for kernel design?
>
>Which idea was that?  If it was to keep the actual kernel as minimal
>as possible, I don't think anyone could have conceptual disagreement
>with that.  However, one has to be careful not to force gross
>inefficiency by doing too little in the kernel.  An example of this
>is the user-mode XT protocol and multiplexing via ptys typically
>done on BSD-based systems to support 5620/630-class ("Blit-like")
>terminals; the context switch overhead is horrendous.

This was my original idea. It clearly needs refinement.
I also probably used the term "user process" incorrectly
in this description. Oh well.

# How about this? Make everything a user process which serves
# a resource to a client. Resources include the CPU (scheduler),
# memory (VM), disk (file system), network (sockets, etc),
# serial lines (terminal handlers), etc. Each server determines the access
# method and security criteria for its service. Make no arbitrary policy
# decisions regarding a service! Don't like the VM server? Replace it! You
# could have a security monitor provide a security policy on behalf of
# your file system or IPC mechanisms. If you have no need for security,
# don't run the monitor.

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	     James Buster
	Mad Hacker Extraordinaire
	 bitbug at lonewolf.sun.com
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	     James Buster
	Mad Hacker Extraordinaire
	 bitbug at lonewolf.sun.com
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