Chapter 6: Kernel Is As Kernel Does
I admitted to Ngnghm (whom I call “Ann”) that I was perplexed by Houyhnhnm computing systems (I pronounce “Houyhnhnm” like “Hunam”). To better understand them, I wanted to know what their kernels, libraries and applications looked like. There again, he surprised me by having no notion of what I called kernel or application: the way Houyhnhnm systems are architected leads to widely different concepts; and for the most part there isn’t a direct one-to-one correspondance between our notions and theirs. And so I endeavored to discover what in Houyhnhnm computing systems replaces what in Human computer systems is embodied by the operating system kernel.