>The installation ISO images can be downloaded from Debian Ports (ftp.ports.debian.org/debian-ports-cd/hurd-i386/debian-hurd-2017/) in the usual three Debian flavors: NETINST, CD, or DVD. Besides the friendly Debian installer, a pre-installed disk image is also available, making it even easier to try Debian GNU/Hurd. >The easiest way to run it is inside a VM such as qemu (debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install)
Nice, but I wonder if it will ever be able to be as good as Linux. All those years of development and community contributions versus what is more-or-less a hobby project. Sadly HURD will probably never get anywhere, but I really hope it will. I'd love to contribute but I have no idea how. I'm not that good of a C programmer and there's nor resources to help you anywhere, as opposed to Linux for which there are some guides available on how to write a kernel module for example.
Christian Fisher
I thought it was dying, good to hear I was wrong. Maybe, one day, if I will ever get good enough, I may start contributing myself...
So when Hurd hits 1.0 what features will its still be missing? I don't mean to be a pessimist but still.
Jayden Ross
When x64 will be supported and some redesign for chroot will be done. For now they concentrate on server users rather than desktop users. The hurd works at the moment for 32bits server, the hurds website is a proof of that.
Landon Hughes
Proof?
James Davis
Literally what century is this?
Leo Hall
You can see the source code, it's publicly available.
Luis Hernandez
It's all in C, you mongoloid retard.
Christian Long
With any new kernel, no matter how good, it all comes down to availability of hardware drivers.
Grayson Jenkins
So what? Even *BSD has a shitty hardware support, and still widely used in servers.
Anyway for now they are seeking server/virtual machines, so drivers atm aren't the problem, especially with the Driver Framework.
Justin Kelly
Can we get a Devuan GNU/Hurd?
Luke Miller
I see that you have good tastes.
Ayden Rogers
I have a question: what does any of this mean? I mean, is there a sort of layman's summary as to why Hurd is so special, other than simply having an alternative? From what I get Hurd seems to be doing something other kernels are not doing, but I don't understand what it is.
Brayden Flores
hehehe
Adam Rogers
I'm glad to see that the Hurd is still very much alive. As soon as a 64 bit port is available, I will use it full-time.
James Walker
Last I checked, systemd only worked on the Linux kernel. So, no systemd cancer in GNU/Hurd, ever.
Brandon Davis
HURD is a microkernel and it's extremely modular. Theoretically, this means more security (since it has smaller surfaces of attack), more stability (if a module fails, it can be reloaded on the fly without crashing the entire thing), more performance (since binaries are smaller), the ability to load/unload modules on the fly (Linux can also do this even though it's monolithic, however); among other things.
Can someone explain why do wee need 64 bits processing for desktop ? If only the W3C would stop being pieces of crap in their decisions and come back to a sane web architecture, browser wouldn't have to be that big and unoptimized.
Leo Kelly
There's no real reason why there cannot be a systemd server system within Hurd. It's theoretically possible that you can implement various Linux functions in such a way that systemd would run out of the box without any kind of modification. In theory, someone could write a set of Hurd servers that implement systemd semantics. In practise, I don't think anybody would be insane enough to invest that kind of effort.
Jayden Gomez
The W3C standardizes features that web developers actually implement in the Internet in this very day. They are not the source of these features but rather, the standards body that makes these already existing features as a part of the standard.
Dylan Richardson
Shhh Don't tempt the poet.
Yeah I know but it's still shit decisions.
Jayden Taylor
what's going to happen is there will be systemd-linux and systemd-hurd
what your referring to as Hurd will infact be GNU/Systemd-hurd
Levi Taylor
no arm support.... my raspberry pi wont support this.
Levi Wilson
...
Jose Cruz
It suppose to be pretty easy to port GNU Mach (which is technically the only platform dependent component) to a new platform. The other platforms were supported before (such as PS2 and i860). It's 18k SLOC for i386 now, and only 1700 of assembly. (Which seems huge compared to MINIX3).
Juan Cruz
To be correct PS2 appears to be some kind of IBM PS/2 (which is IA-32 essentially) rather than MIPS-based PS2.
Logan Gutierrez
Something like systemd is not needed in Hurd because you can have active translators attached to the file system's inodes and they can start programs on demand as soon as the file is requested. When you can actually work with the help of the operating system instead of against it, you don't need to reinvent the wheel[1]. That said, GNU Hurd is a hell of complexity thanks to the Mach kernel and they can't switch to something better like L4 because it would take too much work[2]. Do you want a better system, then try Plan 9, no legacy shit, no complicated architecture. The kernel only have the most basic things and act as a server multiplexer. Check this [3] and this [4]. [1]draketo.de/light/english/free-software/some-technical-advantages-of-the-hurd [2]gnu.org/software/hurd/history/port_to_another_microkernel.html [3]cs.unm.edu/~fastos/05meeting/PLAN9NOTDEADYET.pdf [4]herpolhode.com/rob/ugly.pdf
Carter Parker
GNU Mach is a fork of an old CMU Mach kernel and is considered within the second generation of microkernel technology. For performance reasons, the Hurd programmers decided to implement a few drivers inside Mach. It wasn't too important for them to keep GNU Mach as a strictly minimal microkernel as Minix 3 kernel is a strictly minimal microkernel.
I agree that systemd is completely unnecessary within Hurd, every functionality of systemd (and dbus for that matter) is utterly redundant with all the mechanisms within Mach and Hurd. I was just expressing that it is theoretically possible to either implement Linux within Hurd or implement a systemd interface that translates systemd semantics into Hurd semantics.
