Talk:Modular Kernel

Disadvantages

I don't agree with the following statements under 'Disadvantages':

• It may loose stability. If there is a module that does something bad, the kernel can crash, as modules should have full permissions.
• ...and therefore security is compromised. A module can do anything, so one could easily write an evil module to crash things (Some OS's only allow modules to be loaded by the root user).

I read that e.g. Minix has it's modules running in user mode, so the first statement is a matter of opinion. Second, a monolithic kernel always has it's 'modules' running in kernel space, so this is not a disadvantage of a modular kernel. It may actually be an advantage that its possible to run the modules in user space, therefore having better protection against 'bad' modules. Virtlink 13:25, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

Note that a modular kernel having its modules running in userspace would be called a Microkernel. -- Solar 13:41, 21 October 2008 (UTC)