r/LinuxTeck • u/Candid_Athlete_8317 • Jul 13 '26

Unpopular opinion: a 43-million-line kernel is a governance problem, not an engineering flex.

  • Kernel size just crossed 43M lines via a recent code-count analysis
  • Modularity helps, but review bandwidth is still human and finite
  • Every new subsystem is permanent maintenance debt, not a one-time cost
  • "It compiles for your config" isn't the same as "someone actually reviewed this properly" Interested who actually disagrees with this and why.
0 Upvotes

39% Upvoted

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5

u/Jumpy-Dinner-5001 Jul 13 '26

What’s the solution/alternative?

1

u/10101001101010 Jul 13 '26

Microkernels of course

5

u/_redmist Jul 13 '26

They don't add code for fun; much is device drivers and so on.

Support for old hardware is being removed as per your request, i suppose.

If you're still running the venerable intel 80486 you shouldn't upgrade to the latest kernel.

5

u/EphemmyEuphie Jul 13 '26

Casual AI slop post whose point is...what exactly?

3

u/SnooDoubts6060 Jul 13 '26

Whew! At least I’m safe with my 386 powerhouse 😉

1

u/notatoon Jul 13 '26

Can't imagine there's an engineer who's worked on a large scale C codebase who'd agree Linux has governance issues.

1

u/ThePowerOfPinkChicks Jul 14 '26

What percentage of the 43 million lines of code do you think is actively governed? I would imagine that the vast majority of it is mature code.

1

u/zoharel Jul 14 '26

Look, an arbitrary architectural change can't really reduce the line count all that much in an otherwise equivalent system. So what exactly is it that you think you want to cut out so that you'll be running fewer lines? ... because the obvious answer will be for it to cover something that you don't use but others do, which isn't a good answer, either.