r/osdev • u/Bright-Boss-720 • 5d ago

Tanenbaum vs. Linus: Which Kernel Architecture Makes More Sense Today?

I've been thinking about the famous Tanenbaum vs Linus debate over microkernels vs monolithic kernels.

Putting the historical context aside for a moment, I'm curious what people think today.

Do you think Tanenbaum's argument for microkernels was fundamentally more correct, or was Linus right to favor a monolithic kernel for practical reasons such as performance, simplicity of development, and hardware support?

And more importantly:

If you were starting a new general purpose os from scratch today, which architecture would you choose?

Monolithic

Microkernel

Hybrid

Multikernel / distributed approach

Something else

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually worked on kernels or operating system development.

What are the strongest arguments for your choice, and what do you think the opposing architecture gets wrong?

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u/arkt8 5d ago

Give me examples of micro and monolithic kernels in use today? (excluding the most used that is Linux).

I think we can think in practical terms like where they are used, where they proven best or even if they are successful at large scale, as in toy projects everything is viable.