On Sep 21, 2009, at 9:33 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:

"We're getting bloated and huge. Yes, it's a problem," said Torvalds."

So may be Tanenbaum was right, after all, there's a reason we make
things modular.

rob, presotto, ken and phil did not agree with tanenbaum's
ideas about modular kernels.

this was a direct response to ast many years ago.  it was
hard to dig up when i did so in 2006.  perhaps someone
has a better link:

 - Microkernels are the way to go
      False unless your only goal is to get papers published.
      Plan 9's kernel is a fraction of the size of any microkernel
      we know and offers more functionality and comparable
      or often better performance.

IMHO, that statement applies to existing microkernel implementations (at the time? perhaps still?) -- its not clear to me that they inherently must be that way.
Likely their use as "fuel for papers and PhD's" contributed to their bloat.

     -eric