Feature Overview
The major contemporary general-purpose kernels are shown in comparison. Only an overview of the technical features is detailed.
| Kernel name | Used in | Creator | Executable format (also see section below) |
Type | Integrated firewall | SMP support | Multiple architecture support (also see section below). |
Multitasking | Virtualization | Security | Profiling/Debugging | Soft real-time support | Hard real-time support | Can keep RTC in UT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agnix | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Amiga Exec | AmigaOS | Commodore International | HUNK | Exokernel (atypical) | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Amiga Exec SG (2nd Generation) | AmigaOS 4 | Hyperion Entertainment | ELF/HUNK | Exokernel (atypical) | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? |
| DragonFly BSD kernel | DragonFly BSD | Matt Dillon | ELF, others - platform dependent | hybrid | IPFilter, Ipfirewall, PF |
Yes | Yes | Yes | chroot, jail,vkernel | ? | DDB, KGDB | ? | ? | ? |
| FreeBSD kernel | FreeBSD,
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, Gentoo/FreeBSD |
The FreeBSD Project | ELF, others - platform dependent | monolithic | IPFilter, Ipfirewall, PF |
Yes | Yes | Yes | chroot, jail | POSIX.1e and NFSv4 ACLs, Capsicum, TrustedBSD MAC, OpenBSM | KDB, DDB, KGDB, DTrace, hwpmc | Yes | ? | Yes |
| GNU Hurd | Arch Hurd,
Debian |
GNU Project/Free Software Foundation | ELF | microkernel | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GNU Mach | ? | GNU Project/Free Software Foundation | ? | microkernel | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Inferno kernel | Inferno | Bell Labs / Vita Nuova Holdings | ? | virtual machine | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| L4 | L4 | Jochen Liedtke | ? | microkernel | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Afterburner/L4, Marzipan | Capabilities | Fiasco L4 Kernel | ? | ? |
| Linux kernel | Linux | Linus Torvalds | ELF, others | monolithic | netfilter/ iptables |
Yes | Yes | Yes | cgroups, chroot, Lguest, Xen, KVM, kvm-lite, LXC | POSIX ACL, POSIX Capabilities, keyctl, LSM(SELinux, SMACK, TOMOYO Linux, AppArmor) | OProfile, kprobe, SystemTap, JProbe, ftrace, KDB, KGDB, kernel marker, perf tools | CONFIG_PREEMPT | (CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT Patch) | Yes |
| Mach | NextStep and OpenStep | Carnegie Mellon University | Mach-O | microkernel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Minix 3 | Minix 3 | Andrew S. Tanenbaum | ELF, a.out | microkernel | No | No | No | Yes | No | Unix permissions | Call profiling, statistical profiling, Minix Debugger (mdb) | No | No | ? |
| MkLinux | ? | OSF Research Institute and Apple Computer | ? | microkernel | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| NetBSD kernel | NetBSD,
Debian GNU/NetBSD, |
The NetBSD Project | ELF, others - platform dependent | monolithic, any kernel using RUMP architecture | IPFilter
PF |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Xen, chroot | kauth | DDB, KGDB, tprof | POSIX real-time scheduling extensions | Kernel preemption | ? |
| NetWare kernel | Novell NetWare | Novell | NLM | hybrid | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| OpenBSD kernel | OpenBSD | OpenBSD developers | ELF, others - platform dependent | monolithic | PF | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Plan 9 kernel | Plan 9 from Bell Labs | Bell Labs | ? | hybrid | ipmux | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| ReactOS kernel | ReactOS | ReactOS Foundation | PE, others? | hybrid | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Rockbox kernel | Rockbox | The Rockbox Project | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SunOS kernel | SunOS | Sun Microsystems | a.out |
monolithic | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Solaris kernel | Solaris,
OpenSolaris, Nexenta OS |
Sun Microsystems | ELF (32-bit only until Solaris 7 in 1998) |
monolithic | IPFilter | Yes | Yes | Yes | Zones, chroot | ACL, RBAC, Auditing, Privileges, Zones, Trusted Extensions | DTrace, CPU profiling, microstate accounting, perf counters, kernel lock stats, kstats, mdb, kmdb | Real-time scheduler | ? | ? |
| Trix | Trix | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | a.out | monolithic | ? | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Windows NT kernel | Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, Windows 7 |
Microsoft | PE, others? | hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Hyper-V | ACL | Event Tracing | No | No | Unofficial |
| XNU (Darwin kernel) | Mac OS X,
OpenDarwin, GNU/Darwin |
Apple Computer | Mach-O | hybrid | Ipfirewall, PF (starting in Lion) |
Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | DTrace | ? | ? | ? |
| SPARTAN kernel | HelenOS | Jakub Jermar | ELF | microkernel | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| Kernel name | Used in | Creator | Executable format (also see section below) |
Type | Integrated firewall | SMP support | Multiple architecture support (also see section below). |
Multitasking | Virtualization | Security | Profiling/Debugging | Soft real-time support | Hard real-time support | Can keep RTC in UT |
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of Operating System Kernels
Famous quotes containing the word feature:
“Knavery seems to be so much a the striking feature of its inhabitants that it may not in the end be an evil that they will become aliens to this kingdom.”
—George III (1738–1820)