Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate The Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate was a debate between Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Linus Torvalds, regarding the Linux kernel and kernel architecture in general. Tanenbaum began the debate in 1992 on the Usenet discussion group comp.os.minix, arguing that microkernels are superior to monolithic kernels and therefore Linux was, even in 1992, obsolete. Linux kernel developers Peter MacDonald, David S. Miller and Theodore Ts'o also joined the debate. The debate has sometimes been considered a flame war. While the debate initially started out as relatively moderate, with both parties involved making only banal statements about kernel design, it grew progressively more
Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate titled "Can We Make Operating Systems Reliable and Secure?". While Tanenbaum himself has mentioned that he did not write the article to renew the debate on kernel design, the juxtaposition of the article and an archived copy of the 1992 debate on the technology site Slashdot caused the subject to be rekindled. Torvalds posted a rebuttal of Tanenbaum's arguments via an online discussion forum, and several technology news sites began reporting the issue. This prompted Jonathan Shapiro to respond that most of the field-proven reliable and secure computer systems use a more microkernel-like approach. Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate The Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate was