L4 and EROS

[Hermann Härtig]

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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