Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
After Docker: Unikernels and Immutable Infrastructure (medium.com/darrenrush)
8 points by dlrush on Nov 6, 2014 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment



This post makes sense except for the unrealistic notion that some kind of mystical unikernel is going to descend fluorescent pink-winged from the heavens and spear code cruft with its long sinuous Tusk of GreatCode +37.

The goal of less kernel bloat is a great one, however the realistic options in a modern environment are either (1) accept the performance and management overhead in running and maintaining a whole new kernel per application; or (2) use containers, thereby unifying the kernel across all containers and removing that overhead (but accepting some security risk).

The pink-winged unikernel is option (3) Everyone rewrites all their code to run on some exotic kernel, or accepts a very complex and long-winded automated recompilation of their existing kernel (eg. Linux) in line with automated application profiling and agrees to deploy on paravirt instead of containers and take the resulting performance hit.

I think (3) is unrealistic, though parts of it will eventually occur at appropriately latency-agnostic portions of mature continuous deployment processes, but do wish unikernels and their winged brethren the best of luck.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2025 batch! Applications are open till May 13

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: