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The GNU Hurd - News From the Edge of Development
By jonas, Section News
Posted on Wed Mar 6th, 2002 at 06:22:45 GMT
Marcus Brinkmann writes in with some news from the GNU Hurd development. Learn what has happened since the last version and what the future has in store.

 

Marcus Brinkmann:

The GNU Hurd is, together with the GNU Mach microkernel and the C library, the core of the GNU system. The Hurd is a set of servers running on Mach, which implement the basic system services like filesystems, network protocols, authentication, and process management. The system is user extensible and replaceable, but GNU libc provides a complete POSIX compatible programming interface on top of it.

The last version of the Hurd that was released 1997 has since been improved dramatically, so that everybody who is interested in trying out the Hurd should use the current development versions. Binary packages of the distribution are available in the Debian unstable archive, and can be installed conveniently, either over the network or from CD images. The complete binary distribution contains well over 2000 software packages on four CD images, including most GNU programs and other software that is part of the GNU system (TeX, XFree86, and more).

Because there are still stability problems and some important features missing, the Hurd system is in general not ready for production use yet, but it is usable as a development platform, and to some extent also as a desktop machine (as far as it provides the features the user needs). Also, the advanced functionality of the Hurd system (like, booting several independant Hurd systems in parallel) are working good.

Currently, development of the binary distribution has been stalled while we are undergoing an ABI change in the C library and the move to gcc 3.0. Also, the driver framework in the microkernel will be replaced by OSKit in the near future. So, there will be massive changes to the core system, which will improve the usability and stability of the system and have a measurable effect on the quality and size of the binary distribution when we resume its development.

Information about installation of the Hurd is available from the GNU Hurd web site, http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/.
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The GNU Hurd - News From the Edge of Development | 12 comments (12 topical, editorial) | Post A Comment
[new] Correct link (#1)
by cyd (#42) on Wed Mar 6th, 2002 at 08:12:50 GMT
(User Info)

The correct link to the Hurd page is http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/

[ Reply to This ]


[new] The innovators :) (#3)
by kayhayen (#227) on Wed Mar 6th, 2002 at 08:46:26 GMT
(User Info)

The GNU Hurd certainly has promises to be a really innovating OS kernel. Linux as a kernel rightfully is only a innvative implementation, but not so a design level. That's the really good and I want Hurd to succeed with more of this.

Unfortunately I tend to believe that Linus is all right about monolitic kernels being more effective development. With modular code, they are ok. From the early days with Tannenbaum it's been so. With him saying Microkernel is the future thing, we still see no widespread kernels of this type.

Advantages of multiple instances are wiped out by IBM technology running 10000 Linux instances on one box on one side. I believe they use a tiny microkernel port of Linux for that. And from Usermode Linux on the other side.

Device handling seemed better to me in Hurd, but I guess, even that's only a matter of time until somebody hacks similar for Linux.

Any of us with some recent Hurd experiences?

Yours, Kay

[ Reply to This ]


[new] Red Hat HURD! (#7)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Thu Mar 7th, 2002 at 15:51:09 GMT

All I need is USB support for Writing to my cd writer and for my USB stereo-link sound card to work and I would run it. I applaud the efforts and I can't wait until I see Red Hat HURD! thanks for all the great software GNU.

[ Reply to This ]


[new] Like this website (#10)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Fri Dec 10th, 2004 at 08:53:11 GMT

website imiquimod pic bbs Article links sitemap sitemap2 links add Health links all Article freewebpage1 hpv net seocn googlecn
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[new] Because there are still stability problems and som (#11)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Sat Jan 29th, 2005 at 18:18:58 GMT

Contribute Publishing Services is a lightweight J2EE application (available separately) that lets Hazard centrally manage user site connections and gives him a deeper look into the organization's web publishing activities. "In previous versions of Contribute, we were creating connection keys and all our users were sharing a root level FTP account on our staging server--a bit of a hodgepodge. Now, we can tap into our network directories and it's so much cleaner and more secure," said Hazard. The network staff favors integrating Contribute with Active Directory, claiming it's "the proper way of doing things."

[ Reply to This ]


 
[new] webmd (#12)
by a member of the hurd (#-1) on Sat Apr 2nd, 2005 at 05:31:00 GMT

e Weekly Movie Guide Newsletter on Fridays. Special offer for TV Guide users.Sign up now to receive WebMD's newsletters. You will get access to WebMD

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The GNU Hurd - News From the Edge of Development | 12 comments (12 topical, editorial) | Post A Comment
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