Features of the macOS Kernel
- The macOS kernel is officially known as XNU.
- XNU is “a hybrid kernel combining the Mach kernel with components from FreeBSD and C++ API for writing drivers”.
- Mach part is responsible for low-level work, such as multitasking, protected memory, virtual memory management, kernel debugging support, and console I/O.
Features of Linux Kernel
- Linux is solely a monolithic kernel.
- So responsible for managing the CPU, memory, inter-process communication, device drivers, file system, and system service calls.
Difference between Mac and Linux kernel in one line
The macOS kernel (XNU) has been around longer than Linux and was based on a combination of two even older code bases. On the other hand, Linux is newer, written from scratch, and is used on many more devices.
