Subject: The VM system
To: None <tech-kern@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/19/1995 16:33:32
There has been some recent comment on projects like fixing/improving
sysctl().

I'd like to humbly suggest that a slightly more important project,
both from a PR and a reliability/performance point of view, would be
fixing the VM subsystem once and for all. We all know it needs to be
done, and no one wants to do it -- largely because it is a
legitimately Very Big, Very Hard problem. However, so long as it isn't
fixed, the FreeBSD people can crow that they have a technical
advantage over us, and, far, far more importantly, things like core
leaks and inconsistencies in various operations will show up.

This is a volunteer effort, and its really not my place to suggest
that people HAVE to work on such a thing. However, I would like to
suggest that it would be a "good thing", and that it might make it
easier to kick off if there were a discussion of the "right
architecture" conducted for a while to motivate people.

I also volunteer to buy the implementation team for a new VM system a
bottle of very fine single malt Scotch whiskey (say, The Macallan), or
the comparable award of their choice. Although such a bottle is
expensive, I know it isn't worth nearly the amount of time and effort
that would go into such an effort -- I offer it only as a symbol of
the appreciation of the community for removing one of the last major
architectural advantages other operating systems can claim (multiple
processor support being perhaps the other remaining one.)

Perry