In any case, kernel guys seem to prefer their data structures in intrusive style rather than the container style ubiquitous throughout the C++ standard library. (For an example, see the intrusive list and red-black tree implementations in the Linux kernel.) Intrusive structures allow for exactly the kind of low allocation, very memory friendly layout that kernel developers are looking for - no clever optimisations necessary.

C++ features like stronger type checking, more careful casts and RAII are a more compelling argument for the language.