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.
Where Are the Linux Kernel Files?
The kernel file, in Ubuntu, is stored in your /boot folder and is called vmlinuz-version.
In the /boot folder there will also be other very important files called initrd.img-version, system.map-version, and config-version.
The initrd file is used as a smallRAM diskthat extracts and executes the actual kernel file.
That is essentially what kernel modules do for Linux.
LKMs have the file extension .ko and are typically stored in the /lib/modules directory.
The developer of the software (i.e.
A kernel isn’t magic, but it is completely essential to any computer running properly.
