Talk:Megalithic Kernel

Is this a real term? Citation needed :) --Love4boobies 12:57, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

The phrase has certainly been used before within the hobby OSdev community, though I agree it's not an academic term. Still, it's a useful term. Do you have a better suggestion to name this sort of kernel? Xvedejas 14:24, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

No, I have no problem with the name. I just think it might be dangerous to invent terms because we'll end up confusing people. Names obviously need to come from somewhere, but I don't think this wiki is the place---it should probably come from the industry, we are a small community here.

As for the VM thing, I don't think you got my point: Address spaces are not a hardware concept; they can be implemented in software just as well. E.g., Singularity is a microkernel even when configured to run everything in kernel mode (processor-wise). Hence, if you implement a VM in a megalithic kernel, applications won't be able to see/touch the kernel or other applications---you end up with either a microkernel or a monolithic one, depending on the design.

--Love4boobies 18:46, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

Fair enough; what I'm trying to describe then is not a design in opposition to a monolithic/mircokernel, but it is still a class of kernels that doesn't seem to be discussed on this wiki. Would you suggest instead I remove this article and create a section on the article Kernel? Xvedejas 19:11, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

I'd say Wikipedia procedure applies, more exactly WP:OR. A Google search for "megalithic kernel" yielded a whooping 19 (!) results, of which just half a dozen use the term in the way described here, and of those almost all use it in a derogatory way. I don't think it's a "design pattern" we should describe here at all. That's like describing the benefits of spaghetti code in a Wiki about coding styles... -- Solar 12:41, 2 August 2011 (UTC)