Rust in the kernel feels like a red herring. For fault tolerance and security, wouldn’t it be a superior solution to migrate Linux to a microkernel architecture? That way, drivers and various other components could be isolated in sandboxes.
I am not a system programmer but, from my understanding, Torvalds has expressed strong opinions about microkernels over a long period of time. The concept looks cleaner on paper but the complexity simply outweighs all the potential benefits. The debate, from what I have followed, expressed similar themes as monolithic vs microservices in the wider software development arena.
I'm not a kernel developer myself, but I’m aware of the Tanenbaum/Torvalds debates in the early 90’s. My understanding is the primary reason Linus gave Tanenbaum for the monolithic design was performance, but I would think in 2025 this isn’t so relevant anymore.
And thanks for attempting to answer my question without snark or down voting. Usually HN is much better for discussion than this.
>"My understanding is the primary reason Linus gave Tanenbaum for the monolithic design was performance, but I would think in 2025 this isn’t so relevant anymore."
I think that unlike user level software performance of a kernel is of utmost importance.
Microkernel architecture doesn't magically eliminate bugs, it just replaces a subset of kernel panics with app crashes. Bugs will be there, they will keep impacting users, they will need to be fixed.
I agree it doesn’t magically eliminate bugs, and I don’t think rearchitecting the existing Linux kernel would be a fruitful direction regardless. That said, OS services split out into apps with more limited access can still provide a meaningful security barrier in the event of a crash. As it stands, a full kernel-space RCE is game over for a Linux system.
Not sure I get the joke. MINIX is not building from scratch. It's a serious choice if one needs a microkernel. Hurd is more experimental but still not Amish.
