[Ksummit-2013-discuss] Topic: where should the border between userspace and kernel be?

[Miklos Szeredi]

It sometimes becomes obvious that some part of the operating system is
served better in the kernel than in userspace and sometimes the other
way round.

Is the border always where it should be?  Are there any candidates for
moving things into, or out of the kernel?  Are there some guidelines
for deciding which functionality belongs to the kernel?

One area which I think needs some thought is mobile broadband.  Why do
we need a userspace daemon to handle mobile broadband devices?  Why is
it still nearly impossible to set up mobile broadband over bluetooth?
Why can't I send/receive SMS messages using a mobile broadband device
while networking over the device is enabled?  Why do I need to choose
between NetworkManager and the related GUI only tools or the CLI tools
to configure networking?  Could we do it the way that CLI tools can
cooperate with the GUI tools in case when something breaks and needs
to be debugged for example?

With a well thought out kernel interface comes a stable API and fully
functional CLI tools in addition to our familiar (though not always so
fully functional) GUI tools.

Thanks,
Miklos