kernel

Story: Linus calls Linux 'bloated and huge'Total Replies: 5
Author Content
AwesomeTux

Sep 22, 2009
2:26 AM EDT
Right at the top of the article it says:

"LinuxCon 2009 Linux creator Linus Torvalds says the open source kernel has become "bloated and huge," with no midriff-slimming diet plan in sight."

"open source kernel" not "OS" why is the description of this story different from the actual article? Linux is the kernel, not the OS, and the article is about the kernel, not the OS (which Linus has no say in). Things like these should be corrected before they are posted.
hkwint

Sep 22, 2009
6:19 AM EDT
You're right. Thanks for noticing. I hope the issue is fixed.

These things may happen however when posting 13k stories, like Scott did. And we don't have the money / people to make a nice QA team, so to quote Linus: while it's unacceptable it's also unavoidable.
chalbersma

Sep 22, 2009
4:43 PM EDT
If I remember correctly Linux refers to the kernel. So if the kernel is bloated Linux is bloated. I picked it up pretty fast....
azerthoth

Sep 22, 2009
4:50 PM EDT
Wonderful, they yap about it when it is used 'incorrectly' then yap about it when it is used 'correctly'.

*sigh* locksteppers unite, the FSF [(ph)Fony Software Freedoms] are endangered.
chalbersma

Sep 23, 2009
2:12 AM EDT
I guess I'm being a little facetious eh azerthoth. Good call.
tuxchick

Sep 23, 2009
10:07 AM EDT
'Bloat' is a loaded word with little useful meaning. More functionality = bigger kernel. More functionality is good. Does having a big kitchen sink kernel hurt anyone? Probably not on a desktop system, it's just more disk space, and not all that much. On my PCLinuxOS system the kernel is 1.7 megabytes. /lib/modules is over 27 MB, and if I wanted to I could remove most of that to save space on my 160GB hard drive.

On embedded systems the kernel is stripped down to the essentials for that particular system, and what's cool is the same kernel supports a raft of different architectures and features. Just use the bits you want and discard the rest.

I don't like it when these 'bloat' comments get flung around because they're usually getting all excited over nothing-- did Linus say the kernel is full of non-functional bloaty code? There is probably a bit of real Crisco, some bits where one line of code can replace two. But let's get real, this is not a problem. Vista at over 14 GB and none of it functional, that is bloat.

*edit* ntoskrnl in Vista is 3.4 MB.

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