Exploring GNU/Hurd – The lost operating system

A Road Not Taken

Debian GNU/Hurd is not ready for everyday use. Several years are probably needed for it to reach that moving goal post technically, assuming it ever does. Meanwhile, the Hurd's instability and incomplete documentation mean that trying it can be challenging even for experienced users. You have to persevere to get to the interesting aspects.

Still, if you have any interest in kernels and operating systems, exploring Debian GNU/Hurd might be worth your effort. You probably won't come away with any strong opinion on the microkernel vs. monolithic debate, simply because the painfully basic and only tentatively stable Hurd is going to suffer in any comparison with the sophistication of a recent Linux Kernel. But, if nothing else, you should come away with a useful sense of other possibilities.

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • FOSDEM 2010: Marketplace for Distros

    At FOSDEM 2010 in Brussels, software that was declared dead was resurrected (Hurd), known combatants sat down at the same table (openSUSE, Fedora and Debian) and almost forgotten entities raised their hands again (openSUSE for PowerPC).

  • Richard Stallman's GNU Project Turns 25

    The GNU Project celebrated its 25th birthday on September 27, 2008. With its GCC compiler and bash shell, GNU was ever at the forefront of today's Linux distribution. To kick off the celebration, British humorist Stephen Fry appears in a video in defense of free software.

  • Kernel News

    In kernel news: The "Filesystem" System; Maintaining GitHub Kernel Forks; and Going In or Going Out?

  • Kernel News

    Zack Brown reports on bug hunting and process appreciation, and refusing "useful" patches.

  • Free Software Projects

    Although a couple of scratches are visible, you can read from the backup CD. The question is, for how long? Cdck measures the sector access times to give you an idea. Have you overwritten the bootloader on your disk? Super Grub Disk to the rescue!

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News