[who_would_fardels_bear]

I thought the idea, at least with UNIX, was to have a relatively small, tight kernel that limited itself to critical functions and that everything else was managed by libraries which could be standardized or optimized for specific platforms.

It seems like more and more code that was in libraries is now in the kernel.

[Campion]

The kernel manages the hardware at a low-level. There are thousands of possible HW optional bits out there, and the kernel your distribution installs has to have at least pluggable-module support for all of them.

However, you can build your own kernel that includes only support for HW that is actually on your computer, and it will be quite a bit smaller.

[Montana_Sam]

Linux (meaning “the kernel”) ships with the software drivers for hardware, so it is quite big. But that philosophy is a solid way around the chaos of Microsoft’s chaotic approach (Where do you want to try to find a driver? Hunh? Where is it? HUNH??) And it also explains why GNU/Linux plays so well with older hardware, because the older drivers remain included.