Aaron J Reichow wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, Karl Ramberg wrote:
> 
> > > A microkernel OS would definately be cooler than Linux, and a No-OS would
> > > be ever better, but I'm thinking in practical terms...  Linux would
> > > provide us the ability to run on many platforms (like the OS-requiring
> > > version of Squeak now) and provide us with drivers galore.
> > Drivers is an unsolved issue in SqueakNOS as far as I know. To connect it to
> > my
> > Epson printer fx would be a hassle...
> 
> Exactly.  You'd be writing your own driver or driver framework + driver
> for it at this point.  "Hassle" is an understatement. :)

What about just ignoring some driver problems by
- using one - faster - machine with only network and possibly display/keyboard
(?) drivers for Squeak,
- another - slower - one for printing and special drivers (e.g. controlling
modem connections) stuff.

In extreme you also could control the hard disc by the slower machine
connected with a fast network to the Squeak machine (the network would be the
bottleneck here, if the file system is cached (which it is normally)), and
boot over the net.

Greetings,

Stephan

> 
> This is why I usually advocate an existing kernel for drivers and TCP/IP
> stack.  To this, those who would like as little of an OS as possible
> usually rebute with OSKit <http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/oskit/> which is a
> kit of building blocks, if you will, for a operating systems.  You can use
> Linux and FreeBSD drivers.  OSKit is very neat, but is extremely limited
> in that it only runs on x86 and Digital DNARD (StrongARM).
> 
> There's also OSKit-mach for all of you microkernel fans:
> <http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/bug-hurd/1999-November/003554.html>
> 
> NetBSD and OpenBSD also support a pretty wide array of hardware, at least
> compared to OSKit and Darwin.  I don't know much at all about either's
> architecture, but perhaps their kernels are lighter or more similar to a
> microkernel.
> 
> Aaron
> 
> Aaron Reichow  ::  Twin Ports ACM VP ::  http://www.d.umn.edu/~reic0024/
> "The profit system follows the path of least resistance and following the
> path of least resistance is what makes a river crooked." -U. Utah Phillips

-- 
Stephan Rudlof (sr at evolgo.de)
   "Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis.
    You can't simply say, 'Today I will be brilliant.'"
    -- Kirk, "The Ultimate Computer", stardate 4731.3