What is a kernel - Gary explains

[@benaloney]

Basically, there's a penguin in your phone

[@whytushar]

benaloney Linux is everywhere

[@benaloney]

Tushar Choudhary there's a little bit of Linux in all of us

[@pnp072000]

benaloney Actually, there's a little bit of LinusSexTips inside of all of us...

[@simplytechreviews1373]

+pnp072000 Which shows that pulling out, does work!

[@darylallen2485]

That explains so much. What are you supposed to feed it?

[@islander959]

My mum is a kernel...want to eat some cereal late night..have to go trough the kernel..want to go out with friends..have to go through the kernel..wana get some money..have to go through the kernel

[@FahadAyon]

nice real life example you have made up

[@SuperRahul73]

💯👍😂

[@TheDocbach]

I read this comment in my head with Gary's voice. LOL.

[@Nischhal]

Hahaha superb example 🤣🤣

[@hocineabdellatifhouari3263]

And that's a nice example that made my day 😂

[@LegSpinDrift]

Gary is like the computer science teacher we wished we had...

[@NoajmIsMyName]

right. some they teach and they don't know what they teaching. just reading the book :(

[@LegSpinDrift]

exactly..so true! Noajm Messy

[@223Warlord]

My first semester CS professor is an asshole and downright condescending. By the 2nd semester, the size of the class is halved. I am pretty sure it's because most changed their major because the that horrid professor literally killed their passion for the subject.

[@mothutheslow3955]

In fact I've learned from the internet much more than I would in school!

[@It.wasnt_me]

Infinite Buffer 'in fact' ... I guess some English lessons on you tube need to be found. 😉😄 (just bants)

[@thedude2404]

The kernel is the central module of an operating system (OS). It is the part of the operating system that loads first, and it remains in main memory. Because it stays in memory, it is important for the kernel to be as small as possible while still providing all the essential services required by other parts of the operating system and applications. The kernel code is usually loaded into a protected area of memory to prevent it from being overwritten by programs or other parts of the operating system.

[@ashleyr4702]

wow this comment made so much sense compared to other online courses teaching the same thing. Thank you!

[@RideAlongside]

The colonel of kernels. Good explanation.

[@shayan_ecksdee]

lol

[@amelio5720]

+Ride Alongside Thats KFC

[@luqmantokisaki3733]

I want him as my lecturer in my college. Genius Gary.

[@TechySpeaking]

Say kernel again.

[@Rhino123freak]

lol seriously XD

[@nyisziati]

Nate Harris : colonel. 😂

[@heatxtm]

keeeernel ... leviosaaaa

[@MJ-sp3zh]

@@heatxtm HARRY POTTER

[@274pacific]

@@spwim this is the comment i was looking for

[@fsl001]

I don't normally comment but this deserves a 9.5 /10. The detractor being some of the graphic presentations flashed too fast when Gary was speaking and these are invaluable to blended learners. However, this is a very important topic when undertaking the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional Exam. We need more teachers like Gary.

[@holyson5840]

KFC also has a kernel called kernel sanders

[@FutureAIDev2015]

Holy Son BWAHAHA!

[@sam.mankar]

That's Colonel

[@lin018]

Makes me hungry when hearing "Kernel"

[@relnath]

I really appreciate videos like this. It shows regular joes like me how much effort and thought goes through our devices every day, so we can really appreciate the scale of it all. So once again Gary, it's a pleasure to watch your videos, thank you very much.

[@dezmondwhitney1208]

If I had received explanations like this ten years ago my abilities at IT would have come on by leaps and bounds. Many Thanks.

[@StahliCell]

Damn you explained me what Kernel is, my computer science professor at university couldn't explain it to my colleagues in just above 2 weeks....

[@worldhello1234]

That means he understands it good enough.

[@Theckonestroh]

Kernel is important! BIOS is much more important. Even in Android Developers program got to have a access to the hardware in order to build a kernel. Kernel's are much more simple in Android with for fewer cell phones than Desktop or laptop computers. Not as many devices to connect as in Linux. Of course a college professor isn't probably going to be able to build a kernel, because there more worried about security, networking, viruses, ssh, telnet and just overall repair and upkeep of the hardware on the floor. Other factor Gary forgot to explain is after 1 year or less most of these great ideas are turned into an app available on the Android Store.

[@fadisoltan5113]

that's nothing! MY COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHER BELIEVES IN CORE i4 !!!!!

[@shivampachchigar8678]

@@fadisoltan5113 He must have saw 4th gen i5 as 4500u and thought it would be i4😂😂😂😂

[@fadisoltan5113]

@@shivampachchigar8678 Wonders never stop in 3rd world countries 😂

[@sagarnaidu7480]

Guru Gary, thanks for enlightening me.... _/\_

[@georgemarx7861]

This video is pretty good. I thought he may introduce some complicated name through this video for intruducing the kernel when I opened, but it is not. Every sentence he said is clear and simple, which make people never realise "kernel" can understand.

[@TheeDevasya]

ive been flashing and jailbreaking my phones since galaxy s i9000 and iPhone 2G days as a hobby by going on forums and following tutorials. I pursue a career in medicine and I am remotely related to Computer Science or any other technical stuff. i did come across a few explanations to my que for kernels and by far this was the best explanation i could understand. TYVM !

[@Gamer16232]

So the kernel is like a magical little man we have in our device doing thousands of tasks and taking notes at the same time

[@insrtclevrnamehere]

Linux kernal is really optimized, and is continually worked on by the community. Win!

[@TheGunman889]

linux is my favourite I got a older macbook pro for the build quality but really miss linux so I wanna dual boot

[@TheGunman889]

Negdo Kavc big complications

[@captainsparkle-fingers2744]

Would be so cool to hang out with Gary Sims and talk tech with him!! The man knows a thing or two about the devices we use in everyday world use. GREAT VID!!!

[@rafael9921]

*Even if i dont know his name, i would say his name is Gary*

[@darwinvinci7744]

Lmao why do I feel the same

[@therealsayanroy]

this is the best comment on any youtube video

[@naveenbabu7667]

this type of stuff is what makes you guys THE Android authority. keep it up guys

[@AdoreHorror]

one of the best explainers ever created

[@sabareeshvelayudan2563]

Beautifully explained.....failed to explain many times in interviews about kernel..read many books...did not understand properly......

[@jamestheotherone742]

Man this video would be a wickedly challenging drinking game if you had to take a shot every time he says, "Curnull".

[@aarou]

Your voice is soooo relaxing

[@tangyspy]

British?

[@GarySims]

+Dhruv Verma Who? me? Yep!

[@Xgil2Play]

+Gary Sims Can you be my Computer Systems' teacher?

[@alexts94]

Ikr 😂😂

[@darkpearl88]

really?

[@tennicktenstyl]

Knowing that low-level part of OS coding is bloody hard, I don't even wonder how hard it is to make a good kernel.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

It takes some skill, but you don’t have to be a genius. Linus got the basic Linux kernel booting on his own 486 PC all by himself, after I think just a few months’ work. Others have done a similar thing, before and since. Then he went public and it all snowballed from there.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

In general terms, Gary’s coverage of the major points of what makes a kernel definitely ranks among the best, captain!

[@worldhello1234]

Gary, you are the man, man. You cannot stress enough that you absolutely need root access to properly install a custom kernel. That saves people a lot of headache if they try to find a definitive answer whether or not you need root access to install a different kernel. My conclusion, custom rooms can be flashed via custom recovery which only requires an unlocked bootloader because it is basically end user stuff.

[@aleksagordic9593]

As far as I know kernel is not the lowest piece of software on every OS, it is so in Linux. On other operating systems like Windows or some real time operating systems like FreeRTOS you have device drivers/HAL (hardware abstraction layer) that are not part of the kernel nor a part of OS. So the OS has certain APIs to certain hardware modules and then it is the task of driver developers to create drivers that actually implement those function calls from OS API. Maybe I'm wrong, if so feel free to correct me.

[@fuzz33594]

Gary - another outstanding presentation. I learned something beyond the restaurant waiter analogy I learned when I started messing around with root. Thank you.

[@noahroger5874]

Thank you for you contribution on Kernel. How explicit it was appreciate your effort.

[@ChocoIatx2]

great work! you're my favorite KZbinr on AA since every time I watch one of your videos I learn something new.

[@FaztTech]

Good Video and Explanation :)

[@danwintle8585]

Love all of these kind of videos, very interesting to learn all the different things that go in inside phones and computers, keep up the awesome work! :D

[@ElonTusk.]

About the bricking, bricking is only possible if the bootloader isn't unlocked while trying to use a custom kernal, bootloader unlocked can allow u to reinstall the rom again, with Xiaomi phones it says "fastboot mode" if u don't have a os installed on ur phone which I'm glad they added cuz in some phones u can't reinstall roms even if the bootloader is unlocked it just won't straight up install or boot.

[@dancooper9377]

Great explanation. And if IT videos ever get boring there's always the 6 o'clock news 😅

[@lesorax123]

I come to android authority just for Gary's videos.

[@ravimohan6144]

Thanks for sparking the interest. Nice little introduction with historical perspective which is very important to understand where we stand

[@LarryLopez91]

Gary, you said near the end of the video that these companies spend millions finding the perfect balance of performance and battery life. What irritates me is that these companies still screw up the performance and/or battery life despite the fact that they have all the best engineers that money can buy! The Oneplus X for example performs like garbage when gaming on the stock kernel setting, yet when you switch it over to the more conservative setting, gaming performance dramatically improves. Can you explain that? How about my LG G4? While on Lollipop, it had pretty good battery life along with fairly good gaming performance. But now with Marshmallow, it feels like I'm gaming with an $80 tablet with poor battery life. Sluggish, yet power hungry! I'm not trying to harp on you or anything, but I find it perfectly understandable when users want to tweak the performance and battery life of their kernels because the companies couldn't get it right on their own. Spending millions doesn't mean diddly when you actually test these devices in the real world. If the companies actually got it right with giving us the optimal performance and battery life the first time, then there would hardly be any need for custom ROMS and kernels.

[@aryanchawla4412]

Dude wtf how did one plux ten released 4 years back?

[@khalidmkhan]

Never had it so concise! Uni seems a lifetime away. Thanks for uploading

[@jaman198]

We all need someone in real life to explain computer stuff like this in simple terms...

[@Husvagnen18]

I use a custom kernel for my Note 2. It gives much more configuration options, and it improves the audio quality and boosts up the volume when I use headphones. Much better than the original kernel.

[@PatrickDKing]

Thanks. I always thought a kernel was that annoying thing that gets stuck in my teeth after eating popcorn.

[@pavel2058]

You are just AWESOME, thank you for these videos, they are great!

[@MJ-sp3zh]

The way he says "kernel" is so satisfying and relaxing. No homo😂

[@zangizangidze8787]

Keoooooooo nel

[@N0purpose]

Why did you say no homo lmao what's gay about that

[@zangizangidze8787]

@@N0purpose kernel fetish

[@MJ-sp3zh]

@@N0purpose holy shit that was 2 yrs ago lmao idfk why

[@N0purpose]

@@MJ-sp3zh lol i didn't even notice that😂

[@mznunaya]

I absolutely love you. I could listen to you talk about this shit all day.

[@Ph03n1ks]

Awesome explanation. Will just have the word "kernel" stuck in my head all day. One more time: kernel.

[@rahulm5062]

Excellent job Gary! And thank you soo much for the explanation. I was not knowing anything about kernels. Now I got an idea. Thank you, Android Authority.

[@longsss]

Thanks Gary! I've been wondering what a kernel is.. Finally the time has come.

[@gjoe3756]

The thing about changing kernel is the compatibility with peripherals (camera, sensors, backlight) Mainly because they are binaries which aren't mean to run on others kernel causing low performance on them.

[@Elhandyhijodemanny]

Great lecture, don't rush through the information intensive slides though.

[@durairuna6068]

2:14 just saving this for myself, thanks for the video!

[@eIucidate]

Very succinct summary at the end.

[@liccoweeee]

I loved how Gary explain Tech!

[@elusivethelegend7404]

Rock on Gary, your explanations are AWESOME! You should go over some of the most common partitions in Android

[@ndrukz]

thanks Mr.Gary ! i wish i can have you as my teacher back in the college.

[@DarkZerol]

For some reason, I'm suddenly in mood for KFC.

[@calebcodesitall3883]

You have a great way of Explaining complex ideas! How do you do it?

[@DevanshuRow]

" .. computers are incredibly dumb. All they're doing is following instructions. " You should meet humans, they struggle to achieve the above

[@kingprone7846]

just gonna leave this here: If you have issues with the brother printers on linux (Fedora) it is because the drivers they released were for very old versions of fedora and hence they arent 100% compatible. usually you get them to work but it might require a bit of knowhow and tinkering with a few config files after install.

[@rashidhussain4737]

my handsfree set burst by Gary's audio mode. Goood job though.

[@mrwang420]

I personally believe that the creation of a whole new operating system from the kernel up is a good idea. Honestly I like the idea of an os that is super simple and allows it to utilize as mich of the hardware as possible.

[@5gun1]

So what’s stopping you from making one

[@qwerte6948]

​@@5gun1 his own mind

[@danielwait8555]

Your channel is great man! I am an electronics student and we don't get this quality information even though we're working with microcontrollers all the time.

[@jasonvanburen5701]

Thank you, I have been trying to find a clear explanation of what is a kernel

[@groovy2742]

I have a question plz.. What is the difference btw Real-time embedded Operating Systems / Kernels and the Linux Operating System / Kernel?

[@andrewverden459]

Hmmm... if I go to linux kernel course, will I be able to reconfigure a google assistant button to a cinemaPro app on Xperia 5 II?

[@AndreasToth]

I'm nit picking here, but then terminology is important as the mix-up causes unnecessary confusion. In this case one doesn't download a kernel to install it, one flashes it. However, if the loading terminology was to be used, it really would be uploading, as in uploading the image to flash, and not downloading it. Although uploading would directionally be more correct, that's still incorrect terminology. The correct terminology, as previously stated, is flashing, as in flashing a kernel image.

[@Honest_Reply900]

What role does OS plays along with kernel? Could you please make a video of a complete scenarios from user requesting a service

[@torrencejohnson5788]

What about compatability?ie, certain roms for certain phones-certain kernals for certain roms?

[@owenfitzgerald3219]

So would a correct definition be that the Kernal is the Rubber Stamp department for actions of the Operating System?

[@okayshi]

CAN I ASK WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE RUNTIME OF ART AND DALVIK IN THE DEVELOPERS OPTION?

[@AnathemaAnimus]

I used to run Cyanogenmod on my phones many years ago and undervolting during those days helped with the terrible battery life of that era of phones. Today is less about battery and more about security and privacy though and thankfully there are options! I love this explanation, where was this video in 2004 when I first started putting Linux on old computers? I definitely could have used it 🙂

[@georgeross7145]

Sir: My aged, clumbsy fingers and thumbs are incompatible with touch-screens. Therefore, the Blackberry Passport is my best choice. I hear that they will not support the BB10 operating system after 2019. Is there another system I could substitute and is compatible with their kernel?

[@danielcu96]

Favorite section of AA, and as always, Gary delivers :) Thank you for sharing with us this awesome info

[@muhaymin]

Plethora of knowledge as always, great stuff Gary

[@niara9700]

There should be more videos like this on youtube. Teaching us some little notions about computer science.

[@fauzifikri7805]

This is pure tech content .. Superb explanation ..

[@austinn.4389]

I always enjoy Gary's videos. Great video man! God bless ya! :)

[@Justinwhat1]

Man what a great video. Simple, yet informative enough. Thanks.

[@avi_mukesh]

Very informative, Gary! I really do appreciate these kinds of videos. Btw 1:41, I thought OS X and iOS were built on the XNU kernel. I'm confused :/

[@GarySims]

+Tech A.M Yeah, sorry I should have explained that better, OS X and iOS use Darwin and the kernel used by Darwin is actually caleld XNU, as you rightly said.

[@avi_mukesh]

+Gary Sims Ah, thanks for the clarification.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

4:43 Andy Tanenbaum entitled his USENET posting “Linux Is Obsolete”. He saw it as dumb that somebody would be creating a new monolithic kernel in 1992, since the future obviously belonged to microkernels. Guess what? Here we are, a quarter of a century later, and Linux has essentially conquered the entire computing world. And microkernels are still a solution in search of a problem.

[@suhijo]

Actually it IS dumb, what have helped Linux is the growing capacity of devices so you don't feel to recompile every time your kernel for a new device. But indeed a microkernel is in academic field the correct for maintaining a kernel. If you don't believe me try searching how much of those 15 000 000 lines of the kernel actually work for you computer.

[@lawrencedoliveiro9104]

@@suhijo It’s actually over 20 million now, and most of that is device drivers. A microkernel would need just as much code for device drivers, so I’m not sure what point you think you are making?

[@lal12]

Besides there are some trends in the linux kernel, which go into the microkernel direction. Essentially there are more and more mechanisms which enable you to write devices drivers in userspace. So if you want you can push it as far to come at least very near to a microkernel (e.g. using a userspace network stack and so on). However for me the main disadvantage of a microkernel is the need for more context switches between kernel and userspace. Most IPC (especially low latency one) would need additional context switches to the kernel.

[@samatarosman5811]

Thank you! I've been wondering what a kernel was for quite some time.

[@urielemmanuelpelaezhernandez39]

Good Overview about Monolithic and micro Kernel, good job. ⭐⭐⭐

[@Archer_Legend]

"The teacher" did I have anything else to say about this man?

[@charles-y2z6c]

Building your own Kernal is like building your own car, possible. But you better know what your doing.

[@pkavenger9990]

wow that was really good presentation. I just downloaded the kernel for Jupyter notebook and I was wondering what it actually is?

[@given-namesurname5740]

7:43 "...you can guarantee they certainly would." Call it a hunch, but I doubt that

[@makefile_dot_in390]

In Android, there's Linux/GNU in the middle between the kernel and the Android runtime, so some graphs are incorrect

[@andrewbrown6307]

100% less music and its perfect video

[@id104335409]

It's what gets stuck between your teeth when you eat popcorn.

[@mahdiamrollahi8456]

So, kernel driver contains any driver from each company? There are lots of drivers...

[@NeerajLagwankar]

Excellent video! Loved it very much

[@akrammohammed1167]

How is the kernel different from the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) ?

[@ericcartmansh]

Excellent as usual Gary. Delightful video :)

[@fasihahmadjanjua]

Please add subtitles to provide ease to viewer.

[@shan_singh]

is kernel just the name given to HDL code??

[@worldhello1234]

@7:49 Only if it does not go against their priorities. The priorities of a single user might differ from those of a smartphone company. @8:05 That is the truncated version of there is not the one and only solution.

[@retiredshitposter1062]

damn this guy knows his shit. expert level explanation. well done sir.

[@maladroitcolors]

Thanks. This helped me understand reading about Kernels in my Securing Systems textbook by Schoenfield.

[@piyushmittra]

Though I already know all about it but still it's great to hear it from Gary😀

[@johndripper]

I just to know if it is possible to add graphic tablet support in android kernel?