> Using C++ for kernel development means you first have to drop most of the useful parts of C++ and take usability hits with almost all the other features.
What? No... the most useful parts of C++ are its compile-time facilities... templates and type utilities and RAII/smart pointers/etc. (I could go on and on) all of which are still there. You'd lose some runtime stuff like the ability to throw exceptions and some RTTI, which some people already advise each other to avoid in user mode too (not to say I agree, but they're still finding a lot of use in C++ without this). If losing those is equivalent to losing most of C++ for you then you're not really taking advantage of C++ to begin with.
What? No... the most useful parts of C++ are its compile-time facilities... templates and type utilities and RAII/smart pointers/etc. (I could go on and on) all of which are still there. You'd lose some runtime stuff like the ability to throw exceptions and some RTTI, which some people already advise each other to avoid in user mode too (not to say I agree, but they're still finding a lot of use in C++ without this). If losing those is equivalent to losing most of C++ for you then you're not really taking advantage of C++ to begin with.