4 HN users recommended this talk4 months2013–2023score 4.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it as an accessible explanation of microkernel isolation and fault-tolerant design, and as Tanenbaum's answer to performance objections.
Andrew Tanenbaum's FOSDEM 2010 talk on MINIX 3, a microkernel OS built for high reliability and security. It shows how the system detects and recovers from device driver crashes, and addresses microkernel performance concerns.
“it's a very interesting but accessible talk for those interested in lower-level systems and fault-tolerant architectures.” (HN, 2013)
Andrew Tanenbaum presenting on Minix 3's architecture: [this video] . Regardless of one's opinions on microkernels vs. monolithic kernels, it's a very interesting but accessible talk for those interested in lower-level systems and fault-tolerant architectures.
Interesting, accessible talk on Minix 3 architecture
It's also for security. If you find a security vulnerability in e.g. the sound driver, you're not going to get root access. Andrew Tanenbaum explains it well: [this video]
Tanenbaum explains how driver isolation limits security exploits
Writing OS's is hard and there are no shortcuts. You should take a look at microkernels and the work Andrew Tanenbaum did with Minix 3 [1] and his modular design as this is the sort of direction you're probably looking for with customisable OS's. [1] [this video]
(2015) Previously: [link] And see [1], my note about this talk being more or less the same as the 2010 Minix talk at FOSDEM[2]. If you saw that one, or any other talk by Tanenbaum of that period, I'll spoil it for you: there's nothing substantially different in this talk. 1. [link] 2. [this video]
Here's you some examples to learn from. Most are old enough that patents have expired: Why Do Computers Stop and What Can Be Done About It? (1985) [link] Their NonStop Architecture [link] QNX's systems are ultra-reliable, too [link] OpenVMS clusters' uptime was years to decades & mixed CPU ISA's [link] Systems that run forever and self-heal (Armstrong) [link] Microreboots [link] Minix 3: Microkernel-based, self-healing, POSIX OS [this video]
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