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The best servers are those that don't appear to be servers at all.
Wednesday 23 September 2009, 1:48 PM
From the Source's Mouth
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10358024-16.html
Linus Torvald's says so too. (At least as reported by CNet. I tried to find the original quote. Probably only available through Conference proceedings.)
One of the biggest advantages of Linux is that you don't get trapped into one distro or version as with Windows. If you want a smaller footprint OS, you can find a Linux version that's a LOT smaller than Windows.
PreviousComments on this post
Does he mean the kernel or the operating system?
Like you say, you can install super-slim Linux distros such as the Ubuntu-based Crunchbang http://bit.ly/ZcoC7
But is it also as easy to streamline the kernel? Not really my bag, all that kernel-meddling
I don't know for sure. In the context of the article it seemed as if they were talking about the OS. The kernel though has followed along somewhat slower. As new devices, services and protocols get created it seems somewhat inevitable. Its the same issue Windows has, there is a need to drag along legacy support.
As to the kernel itself, assuming you wanted to weigh through all the source code, you could compile a very precise version that would work specifically for one system by cutting away the pieces you didn't want. Since floppy drives for instance are now dinosaur era IO on most computers, eliminating that from the kernel would trim a little fat.
Embedded systems engineers using Linux do that as a matter of standard practice because usually they have much more severe RAM space issues. I'm not claiming any expertise on this yet.
Android until a few days ago looked very interesting for similar reasons. But with the most recent events I have to wonder if it might be best to stay away from Android.
