[CuriousCosmic]

*nixes have a system for handing off to the newer version such as kpatch and kgraft.

kgraft for example swaps off each syscall for a process while it is not being used. This lets the OS slowly transfer to the new kernel as it is running.

kpatch does it all in one go but locks up the system for a few milliseconds.

The version that is currently merged into 4.0+ kernels is a hybrid of the two developed by the authors of both systems.

[cat199]

Runtime kernel patching is a new thing. "*nixes" do not generally have these systems. Some proprietary technologies exist which enable specific platforms to use runtime kernel patching exist.