Most Linux users out there, think that their whole system is named just “Linux” (or perhaps the distribution name). For a large number of reasons, which I do not intend to analyze in this post, this is not, and should not be the case. The actual name is GNU/Linux since only the Linux Kernel is “Linux” and the rest of the system (including some vital parts such as glibc or GCC) are parts of the GNU Operating System.
Full story »
http://linux4coffee.wordpress.com –
Category: Philosophy Tags:
- Login to post comments
aboutblank
16 years 50 weeks 5 days 3 hours ago
Let me clear up on a couple of
Let me clear up on a couple of Hurd misconceptions found in the comment section of the article. Disclaimer: all my statements are unsourced; I got them from reading the GNU Hurd mailing lists + Debian's Hurd mailing list and I'm not bothered to look them up.
The Hurd chiefs prefer people to spell the thing as Hurd as opposed to HURD. Work is still being done on top of the Mach kernel - there is little work being done on other kernels. Mach is feature complete and stable but is very slow compared to other microkernels which will mean Hurd will also absorb this deficiency. This doesn't mean the Hurd is unusable, it just means that running programs on the Hurd will be slower compared running the same program elsewhere. GNU is not focusing on getting Hurd to current standards as there are already numerous free OS kernels around. You can find details about why Hurd is superior on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=GNU_Hurd&oldid=164732280 . There is work porting Linux 2.6 driver support to Hurd.
IMO, we won't see another official Hurd alpha release for at least 10 years from today.
vincentvikram
16 years 49 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago
This is a worthy project and I'm
This is a worthy project and I'm sure that if kernel hackers join in we will not have to wait for long. I do feel that GNU has to give this project a bit more attention that it deserves.