David,
on behalf of the L4 team (at least the one in Dresden): Thanks for your kind words and the concern ;-) .
No need to worry about motivation. On the contrary, we want to push the usage of L4 much further. After having had some nice publication successes in the real-time domain, we now seem to have a real chance to push the usage of L4 into the (high assurance ?) security area. For instance, Dresden's L4 team has a contract to build a prototype of a minimal VPN box in close contact with the German "Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik" (see http://os.inf.tu-dresden.de/mikrosina/). But since a long time, we understand that the current interface has shortcomings, e.g., lacks means to control message passing.
For that reason, and since I know Jonathan Shapiro since a while and appreciate his work on Eros, I have invited him to Dresden to meet with some members of the L4 team (at large) in a small workshop to discuss how to best overcome these limitations. The purpose of the workshop will be clarification, not necessarily consensus.
I am also a bit surprised at the volume and heat ...
No worries + happy new year to the "l4-Team" --hermann.
David Denny wrote:
I have been wondering why "Eros" has invaded this list.
This user's pov: L4 is a solid product which works well. I want to experiment with OS building and L4 has a robust base structure, as well as a friendly community and all the tools I need to stick my own silly things on top of it. I support L4. [ I'd support Eros if it had been built to the same level, never mind whatever "angels on pinhead" theoretical issues might occasionally surface. However, from my assessment of the website and some googled papers, Eros is still (shall we say) alpha.]
I'm concerned that this side debate might end up destabilising the L4 Team's motivation. [ Actually, I think I meant to include the word "angry" somwhere in there but that would have been out of keeping ]
I'm sure that one day there will be viable alternative u-kernels but for the next year or so I can't see anything toppling L4. Please keep at it, Team, and don't allow yourselves to get tr*lled into distractions.
And for the moment Happy New Year L4Hackers and please persevere. You are Doing The Right Thing.
best wishes David Denny
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