
Unikernels: The Next Stage of Linux’s Dominance [pdf] - ingve
https://www.cs.bu.edu/~jappavoo/Resources/Papers/unikernel-hotos19.pdf
======
hossbeast
This is a really exciting result. I don't have anything else to add, but this
line really made me smile,

"To accomplish this, the Linux kernel has been continuously expanded to
support a wide range of functionality; it is a hypervisor, a real- time OS, an
SDN router, a container runtime, a BPF virtual machine, and a support layer
for Emacs".

~~~
conistonwater
I haven't heard this before, why does emacs need a support layer in the
kernel?

~~~
__s
It's a joke. emacs is the operating system, Linux is only the kernel for emacs

~~~
lostmsu
Actually, its just a driver.

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Ericson2314
The real promise of unikernels is not a a "library OS", but "librar _ies_ OS".
I.e. we should be combining reusable parts, not linking one huge chungus
library.

I hope their initial demo really is just a straw man to get something in
mainline which ends up realizing their most important longer term goal of
modularizing the kernel.

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mlinksva
Would enjoy a debate between these authors and the authors of
[https://www.nccgroup.trust/globalassets/our-
research/us/whit...](https://www.nccgroup.trust/globalassets/our-
research/us/whitepapers/2019/ncc_group-assessing_unikernel_security.pdf)
discussed at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19738905](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19738905)

~~~
saagarjha
Theoretically unikernels have the potential to be secure, but the ones
analyzed above did not integrate the most basic of hardening techniques. I
think it's better to take that paper as "current implementations of unikernels
suck" rather than "unikernels suck".

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corysama
More info [https://next.redhat.com/2018/11/14/ukl-a-unikernel-based-
on-...](https://next.redhat.com/2018/11/14/ukl-a-unikernel-based-on-linux/)

[https://github.com/razaaliraza/ukl](https://github.com/razaaliraza/ukl)

~~~
pizzazzaro
I think it would be interesting to make a patch that turns a viable Linux
kernel and glibc into just such a system. I'd want to run it off of the work
of KSPP though.

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orbifold
This becomes really interesting once some of the proprietary software such as
libcuda can be used this way.

~~~
m00dy
I like the idea.

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pjmlp
Not really, as most Unikernels don't have anything to do with Linux.

And the less of them use C, the better.

~~~
rwmj
The unikernel which Ali is writing is based on Linux. That is indeed quite a
big difference, but it's our belief that pulling in all the existing work done
for Linux means this unikernel will ultimately be a lot more useful than the
other ones.

(Disclosure: Although I'm a co-author of the paper, I haven't done much except
help out Ali on a few technical things and run the meetings)

~~~
pjmlp
Still it feels a bit far from "Dominance".

~~~
Majestic121
My question might sound harsh, but did you actually read the paper ? Your
comments seem a bit off regarding the actual content (not just the headline)

~~~
pjmlp
Yes, I did read it.

If anything what makes sense are POSIX unikernels, which as the paper
mentions, are already a thing.

I don't envision a Linux monoculture, and having unikernels written in unsafe
languages is contrary to the whole security idea that they bring into the
table.

As proven by "unikernels" that get deployed on IoT devices, written in a mix
of C and Assembly.

