Simple question - complicated answers

[Tony Arnold]

Liam,

On Thu, 2007-09-27 at 12:27 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> On 26/09/2007, alex <aradsky at ne.rr.com> wrote:
> > It's a little maddening to get answers  that dance all around a simple
> > question.
> 
> It's not a simple question. It's a vaguely-worded and deeply imprecise
> question that appears to betray a profound ignorance of what an
> operating system kernel is, or indeed, what an operating system is.
> It's a silly question asked by a beginner who doesn't really know what
> he's talking about. You may as well march up to the gates of the
> Houses of Parliament and demand to see this "democracy" that everyone
> keeps talking about.
> 
> > I want to do is see what the kernel looks like.
> 
> What does the smell of baking cookies look like? What does yellow sound like?
> 
> Simple questions, but unanswerable.

I think you are being a little harsh on the OP. The question is
answerable! Download the kernel source tar ball, unpack it and start
examining the directory structure and reading the source code.

Unfortunately,and perhaps this is your point, the above is unlikely to
be helpful, especially for someone who perhaps does not have an
understanding of what a kernel is or maybe does not even understand
code! It's a bit like trying to understand how the brain works by
mapping out the synapses!

Regards,
Tony.
-- 
Tony Arnold, IT Security Coordinator, University of Manchester,
IT Services Division, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL.
T: +44 (0)161 275 6093, F: +44 (0)870 136 1004, M: +44 (0)773 330 0039
E: tony.arnold at manchester.ac.uk, H: http://www.man.ac.uk/Tony.Arnold