← Back to context

Comment by saulpw

16 days ago

Yeah, the Linux kernel has ~12m lines of code. <1m are the core, the rest are drivers.

What an inefficient disaster to carry around all those drivers to run hardware that isn't on the device you're running on.

  • * The vast majority aren't compiled into any given kernel

    * Those that are are only loaded when needed

    It's not that bad

  • I sympathize, but the reality is that except for very specialized cases, (hyper) optimizing for CPU performance is unnecessary, even in the embedded space. A Cortex-M0 has roughly the same performance as a 486, and is cheap and power efficient enough to be bundled in disposable test kits, vapes, etc.

  • Most of it is in modules that don't have to be compiled at all (and usually aren't)