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Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 16:49:21 -0700
From: jw schultz <jw@pegasys.ws>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: The end of embedded Linux?
Message-ID: <20021009234921.GC14644@pegasys.ws>
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On Wed, Oct 09, 2002 at 08:17:45PM +0100, jbradford@dial.pipex.com wrote:
> > 
> > On 9 Oct 2002, Alan Cox wrote:
> > 
> > > On Wed, 2002-10-09 at 08:37, Alexander Kellett wrote: 
> > > > This talk of adeos reminds me of something that i'd
> > > > "dreamed" of a while back. Whats the feasability of
> > > > having a 70kb kernel that barely even provides support 
> > > > for user space apps and is basically just an hardware 
> > > > abstraction layer for "applications" that can be 
> > > > written as kernel modules?
> > > 
> > > Its called FreeDOS,
> > > 
> > 
> > -emm. Maybe he needs just a bit more.
> 
> Minix, maybe?

Now, be realistic.  What he asks here isn't that
farfeteched.  Tell me one other OS that has drivers of the
same quality.  I'll be the first to say (oops, Alan beat me
to it) that a Linux stripped down that much wouldn't be
Linux.

However, it wouldn't be an unreasonable project to create
sort of fork that strips Linux down to the bare minimum
while still keeping the driver API.  I don't say that it can
be done just that it might make a reasonable public project
if enough embedded people wanted such a beast^Winsect.  The
dificulty would be excising/replacing core code without
breaking it, side-porting driver patches, and the periodic
resyncing with Linux so new drivers and driver patches would
still apply.  Painful indeed.

Of course it wouldn't be Linux.  Maybe call it Minux or Minlin.
And give it its own mailing list instead of linux-kernel.

-- 
________________________________________________________________
	J.W. Schultz            Pegasystems Technologies
	email address:		jw@pegasys.ws

		Remember Cernan and Schmitt
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