When to use Akka Microkernel?

Question

I am reading Akka docs and am interested in what is actually not well explained. They mention something called Microkernel Akka and refer to it as a kind of boot module / launcher, but they really don't explain what it is and when to use it.

Later in the docs there is a whole page dedicated to Microkernel, but equally mysterious and vague, stating:

The Akka micro-card is included in the Akka download found at boot.

And then:

To run the application with a microkernel, you need to create a Bootable class that handles the launch and shutdown of the application. The following is an example.

But nowhere is there an explanation of what a microkernel is, and why I will ever need to use it. Ideas?

Answer 1

According to Victor Clan, inventor of Microkernel:

The main use case was to create a package so that you can easily pack the Akka application and deploy / run it somewhere else (without having to write startup scripts or install some kind of application server).

and

This is a very lightweight packaging of the Akka application in a redistributable archive.

This Google post may shed more light on this issue for you.