
A reimplementation of NetBSD using a MicroKernel (2015) - AdmiralAsshat
http://theembeddedboard.review/a-reimplementation-of-netbsd-using-a-microkernel-part-1-of-2/
======
carussell
(2015)

Previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9735358](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9735358)

And see [1], my note about this talk being more or less the same as the 2010
Minix talk at FOSDEM[2]. If you saw that one, or any other talk by Tanenbaum
of that period, I'll spoil it for you: there's nothing substantially different
in this talk.

1\.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9736214](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9736214)

2\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3KuE7UjGA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3KuE7UjGA)

~~~
AdmiralAsshat
Apologies, I checked the date and the comments before submitting and they
looked recent. I wasn't aware that the article itself was a repost. Clearly I
should've checked the date on the embedded Youtube video!

~~~
smcl
I hadn't seen it before, and HN wouldn't have let you submit it if the link
had been posted too much recently. So thanks for sharing! :-D

------
bch
Now we just need Minix to start approaching the hardware portability that
NetBSD has fought so hard for.

~~~
snvzz
Those cases are well covered by netbsd, which runs well even on some Amiga
1200 with an 68030 accelerator board I've got.

I've tested recent Minix3 release candidates. Software compatibility is
starting to get there, as unlike previous versions, a good portion of pkgsrc
builds and runs, including X11 software.

However, hardware support is not very good even on x86. It boots fine, X11 can
be used well with VESA drivers and most popular NICs do work, but USB is
missing, which means keyboard/mouse needs to be attached to PS2 ports. As I
understand it, there's USB support, but only for the beaglebone board. I know
there's an effort to make it work on x86 too, but it won't be in this release.

The main hardship Minix3 is currently experience is that they've been
releasing RCs for 3.4 since early last year, and the actual 3.4 is still not
out. A lot of work has been done which won't be on 3.4, and the delays on this
release are effectively delaying everything else. They need to focus their
efforts on closing the blockers, release, and move to some more frequent
release schedule, such as strictly time-based; if a feature isn't ready, then
it gets delayed to the next release, but releases do need to keep happening.

There's a Minixcon soon; I'm hoping it triggers some progress to happen. The
project is this close to the important landmark which is being somewhat usable
as a workstation. After that, both press and development would pick up
considerably.

~~~
bch
Well, according to [http://www.minix3.org](http://www.minix3.org),
MINIXCon2017 is cancelled due to shortage of papers, so there won't be
progress-triggering happening there... I hope you're right (and think that you
are) that getting itself sort of "self hosting" as a development/workstation
will increase the acceleration of its progress.

edit: s/minux/minix/

~~~
snvzz
Bummer. That's extremely sad.

They really do need to get that release out, and move on.

------
butterisgood
Linux can be upgraded without a full reboot using the now-somewhat-ancient
two-kernel-monte, or kexec?

Plan 9 had been able to load new kernels and such without rebooting the
machine fully as well.

I love when people make crazy claims like "NO ONE ELSE CAN DO THIS... I MEAN
WE NEVER ACTUALLY VERIFIED THIS OR LOOKED BUT WE'RE PRETTY SURE NO ONE ELSE
CAN DO THIS!"

Should go into marketing where that crap is allowed.

~~~
snvzz
>Linux can be upgraded without a full reboot using the now-somewhat-ancient
two-kernel-monte, or kexec?

Sure, and some time is saved, as the firmware/bootloader doesn't need to run.
But otherwise, like with a reboot, everything is shut down and restarted.

Minix3 can update system servers and drivers in place, without rebooting and
without user processes even feeling a hiccup. It can even go back to the
older, working version if there's any issue with the new one.

>I love when people make crazy claims like "NO ONE ELSE CAN DO THIS... I MEAN
WE NEVER ACTUALLY VERIFIED THIS OR LOOKED BUT WE'RE PRETTY SURE NO ONE ELSE
CAN DO THIS!"

And I'm still waiting to see such an example. Linux's kexec is not.

