Smaller and simpler is better

aptkevin

Having fewer functions running in privileged mode makes for a more stable environment. A small kernel is a
kernel that is more likely to be stable.
Although it did not run Linux, The NASA Sojourner that traveled to Mars was also designed with the
"smaller and simpler is better" mantra. The Sojourner sported a [color="#0000ff"]2MHz CPU and less than [color="#0000ff"]1 MByte of
combined RAM and nonvolatile data storage. While NASA certainly could have afforded a larger computer,
as well as a large commercialoperating system, simpler was better. Making a service call to Mars to press
Ctrl-Alt-Del was not an option.
上面是Beowulf Cluster Base on Linux一书中讲解各节点kernel tuning时所提到的一段话。“Smaller and simpler is better”的确是大多数软硬件开发者最不在意(或者说最会在意)的一件事。计算机硬件发展到今天，硬件速度提高了几个量级，然而使用体验上似乎没有质的改善。纵观现在计算机上使用的众多软件，动则上G空间，要实现其软件功能就必须得做如此之大吗？我看未必，因为毕竟还是有很多小而且功能强大的软件作品。

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