[smeg_it]

First thanks for the response.

"performance hit taken when transitioning from the user processes to the microkernel" is this still a large issue from the point of view of a desktop/laptop i.e. less embedded or other low power systems?

[dc396]

I haven't really been following microkernels for a (very) long time so it's entirely possible that the performance concerns have been overwhelmed by Moore's Law. IIRC, the problem was that microkernels had to do WAY more syscall-equivalents (regardless of how they're done) than monolithic kernels and the constant context switching slowed everything down, but if everything is orders of magnitude faster, maybe it isn't as much of an issue.