> So I think the cause of my confusion is that you're thinking of the technical question, I'm thinking of the socioeconomic cabaret that it would entail.

Ah ok.

> Microkernels on the nixy side of the industry have so far been crushed beneath the tank tracks of path dependency.

If you shut those down society would grind to an instant halt. They're super successful just not very visible.

Fair enough. I'm mostly concerned with the visible ones.

You mean like Windows NT family (almost), iOS and Mac OS (since X)?

I said "nixy side" with Windows in mind.

OS X is not really very adherent to the spirit of microkernels, earlier and more recent Windows releases have it well beaten in that respect.

Yeah, the technical question is "obvious". The socioeconomic, or "political", if you will, is not.

As you say: It's all about steaming ahead on the mainstream[1]! Woo! /s

[1] I wish you both luck and success if you do something away from the mainstream. Because we need that, at least occasionally.