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0 pointsoscargrouch6y ago0 comments

I think if you dont have a strong opinion about it, this is exactly what they are trying to achive with Zircon/Fuchsia kernel.

A micro-kernel, with a linux virtualization layer, being abble to run Linux executables as if they were native.

My hunch is that in the long term, Google will probably use Zircon as the 'first-level' kernel, and run the android apps using some emulation layer.

Maybe it could be the answer for what you are trying to accomplish, without having to create a whole micro-kernel OS from scratch, while at the same time benefiting from whats already there.

I bet that with such a thing in place, the Linux kernel could totally go away, with only a emulation layer in place if you want to.

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pjmlp6y ago

Google has already kind of achieved that with ChromeOS, each Linux executable runs in a sandbox, specially tailored for it.

It can only see hardware, files and processes that the user allows to as well.

It was written in Rust.

Check the ChromeOS support for Linux talk at Google IO.

oscargrouchOP6y ago

I have checked this earlier. Its pretty cool stuff, but its more in the direction of userspace emulation like what GVisor do.

The OP expressed he wanted to use (or create idk) a micro-kernel based OS, and that in the end he would like to scrap the Linux kernel.

Of course the solution you are pointing out will deliver in one of those axis, but the solution im pointing out would deliver in both, Linux emulation/sandboxing and a micro-kernel based OS controlling all of this.

I just think that the direction Fuchsia is going, has a little bit more to do, to what he is trying to achieve.

But he can totally mix the 'syscall proxy' solution of ChromeOS and a micro-kernel, even if this would still be Zinc or something else. And depending on the goal, maybe having this in userspace level would make more sense. He just need a good and flexible IPC communication (like the one in Chrome, or something on the kernel level).

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