A kernel is the core component of every computer operating system. While kernels are highly technical in nature, and may be hidden from the user under many layers of software and applications, they do have distinguishing or characteristic features, such as computer architecture, design goals, as well as the more practical features that they provide. A direct comparison of operating system kernels can highlight these design choices, and provide insight into different niches and the evolving technology of kernels.
The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating system kernels. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.
Even though there is a large number and variety of available Linux distributions, all of these kernels are grouped under a single entry in these tables, due to differences being of the patch level. See comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed comparison. Linux distributions that have highly modified kernels, for example Real-time computing kernels, should be listed separately. There are also a wide variety of minor BSD operating systems, many of which can be found at Comparison of BSD operating systems.
The tables specifically do not include subjective viewpoints on the merits of each kernel or operating system. For this kind of information, please see operating system advocacy.
Feature overview
The major contemporary general-purpose kernels are shown in comparison. Only an overview of the technical features is detailed.
^The Amiga hardware lacked support for memory protection, so the strong isolation goals of the microkernel design could not be achieved.[citation needed]
^AmigaOS up to version 3.9 could use the ELF format for PowerPC executables and libraries through ppc.library, also known as PowerUP. AmigaOS 4, uses ELF as its native executable format.
^The Linux kernel can recognize PE binaries through binfmt_misc and run them using Wine
^The only supported operation is overwriting existing files, without changing the file length so a loop file on a ntfs volume can be written; better write support can be achieved through ntfs-3g, although that is a FUSE filesystem and therefore not strictly a kernel feature
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