GNU Hurd

Oct. 26th, 2004 10:36 am
miriam_e: from my drawing MoonGirl (Default)
[personal profile] miriam_e
Has anybody here tried the GNU Hurd kernel instead of the Linux kernel?
Or does anybody know anyone who has? (What people generally refer to as Linux is actually GNU/Linux -- a Linux kernel supported by largely GNU software.)

Richard Stallman says that the GNU system, using Hurd as its kernel, "is completely self-contained (you can compile all parts of it using GNU itself). You can run several instances of the Hurd in parallel, and debug even critical servers in one Hurd instance with gdb running on another Hurd instance. You can run the X window system, applications that use it, and advanced server applications like the Apache webserver."

The Hurd is still in its early stages (still has quite a lot of bugs and doesn't handle many devices yet), but it sounds to me like an extremely interesting project. I am especially interested in the fact that different users are able to tinker with, and run, altered kernel parts... and do so without rebooting or affecting other users. Being able to easily accept multiple processors is also neat, as I believe the next big speed revolution will be in parallel processing (after we have run out of cheap improvements to current processor design).

Richard Stallman lists some of Hurd's advantages:
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.html

- free, GPL, software
- Unix-compatible
- object-oriented design lets it survive even major rewriting
- scalable for single or multiple processors and network clusters
- every part is designed for easy modification and extension
- users can alter the kernel without rebooting or affecting others
- it exists right now

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