Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 released

https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/news/2013-05-debian_gnu_hurd_2013.html

by cpeterso • 13 years ago

156 49 13 years ago

gnu.org

avolcano• 13 years ago

Honest question: is Hurd used in production anywhere? I wasn't aware it was still being actively developed.

Nrsolis• 13 years ago

I've never encountered it in my professional career.

As near as I can tell, it offers nothing over the main Linux kernel except sourcing from the GNU Project. IMHO, not enough reason to abandon the Linux kernel. YMMV.

comex• 13 years ago

"Nothing over the main Linux kernel" is complicated. It offers a microkernel design that was modern and radical 20 or so years ago, and is still pretty unique as a Unix system; Linux being as monolithic as ever, you can still do some pretty cool stuff with it you can't come close to with Linux. However, afaik, these days the designs of Mach and Hurd aren't looked upon very highly, the stability advantages of microkernels aren't as important anymore with rock solid traditional kernels, and instead of figuring out how to empower non-root users on Unix systems we just give everyone their own VM.

pjmlp4• 13 years ago

> I've never encountered it in my professional career.

Symbian and QNX are two successful operating systems with micro-kernel architecture.

That IBM, Intel and others decided to sponsor Linux development does not make other kernel designs less valuable.

yebyen2• 13 years ago

Hurd has certainly made strides, we're way past the days when you needed to compile your own translator for /dev/random to make an implementation of sshd possible. I have not tried it this year, but last year I was quite impressed at the progress in ease of installation, driver support, and use.

I just skimmed the Phoronix review from 2011, and I was surprised to see that Hurd outperformed Linux in some categories by a narrow margin, and in others it did not lose by a complete landslide. It's still i386-only, so you know what to expect at least a little bit.

I think a more fair comparison would be Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and Debian GNU/Hurd, since the developer base for each is probably comparatively small. Glad to hear the HURD is still alive. GNU/kFreeBSD has NOT had any release since wheezy or since 9.1, to look at their website, so if numreleases or first-mover is any indicator of progress, take that into account.

Sorry to say all this and have to answer, no, I am not using Hurd for anything. Interested as you are to hear if anyone is, and for exactly what. I would be surprised to hear that anywhere it "really shines" compared to any other platform.

GregBuchholz• 13 years ago

Last time I had the Hurd installed on any hardware (looks like 2004), the only web browsing option was lynx. It sounds like things have improved since then?

duskwuff• 13 years ago

> GNU/kFreeBSD has NOT had any release since wheezy…

Debian Wheezy was just released earlier this month.

mixmastamyk• 13 years ago

Alpha-level software is hopefully not used in production. Could this be considered 1.0 (Beta 1)?

azinman2• 13 years ago

Hurd: The long arduous march to nowhere.

Beyond tinkerers, that is.

kriro• 13 years ago

Seems like the "What operating system are you" quiz needs to be updated. Pretty cool news, congratulations to the team.

I have some spare machine and will give it a go (or try it in a VM first if that's an option).

If anyone feels like writing a technical book some OS design book with the Mach microkernel and GNU/Hurd in general would probably be interesting.

drdaeman• 13 years ago

Last time I checked there was no working sound subsystem in GNU/Hurd, but this was about 4 years ago or so. Anyone knows, did things change since then?

RexRollman• 13 years ago

I personally do not see a need for GNU/Hurd but I do applaud their tenaciousness.

bcl• 13 years ago

Do they really not have a 64bit version?

mattl• 13 years ago

There's a 64-bit version, but it only works in Xen right now.

kamaal• 13 years ago

Talking about stability of a kernel. How is that measured?

ap22213• 13 years ago

Cool. I also heard that Duke Nukem Forever[1] was recently released.

But, in all seriousness, I'll probably end up installing this over the weekend :(

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem

yyqux2• 13 years ago

In 2001 we'll all be playing Duke Nukem Forever on our SPARC desktops running GNU Hurd.

Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 released

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