Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 16th Dec 2005 14:57 UTC, submitted by mlauzon
"Microsoft will move the graphics for its next version of Windows outside of the operating system's kernel to improve reliability, the software giant has told Techworld. Vista's graphics subsystem, codenamed Avalon and formally known as the Windows Presentation Foundation, will be pulled out the kernel because many lock-ups are the result of the GUI freezing, Microsoft infrastructure architect Giovanni Marchetti told us exclusively yesterday."
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Member since:
2005-07-07
though XFree86 (and derivatives) need root privileges to gain access to I/O port access (and various other things), which is basically the same as a restricted kernel level (the video driver could just as well flood the IDE I/O ports, no protection being done there).
the only reason they need kernel drivers every now and then is for interrupt handling, dma and the like - stuff that ends up in a kernel trap and needs handling from there on.
there are designs to make that more secure: miniports on winNT (for a decade or so, and many drivers actually run in userland already - it's not that much of a change for microsoft), beos' accelerants, kgi on linux (shot to death before it was really born)