What is the Linux Kernel and What Does It Do?
So What is the Kernel? A kernel is the lowest level of easily replaceable software that interfaces with the hardware in your gear. In general, most kernels fall into one of three types: monolithic, microkernel, and hybrid. Linux is a monolithic kernel while OS X (XNU) and Windows 7 use hybrid kernels. Let’s take a quick tour of the three categories so we can go into more detail later. It also can have some of the latency problems that is inherent with microkernels....