Exterminate all operating system abstractions
Dawson Engler, M. Frans Kaashoek · 2002
The defining tragedy of the operating systems community has been the definition of an operating system as software that both multiplexes and abstracts physical resources. The view that the OS should abstract the hardware is based on the assumption that it is possible bath to define abstractions that are appropriate for all areas and to implement them to perform efficiently in all situations. We believe that the fallacy of this quixotic goal is self-evident, and that the operating system problems of the last two decades (poor performance, poor reliability, poor adaptability, and inflexibility) can be traced back to it. The solution we propose is simple: complete elimination of operating system abstractions by lowering the operating system interface to the hardware level.