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RMS Says Hurd Could Be Loosed in 2002

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the let-slip-the-dogs-of-code dept.

Mark Cappel writes "According to PCWorld, RMS said in an interview in India that Hurd will see the light of day this year."

5 of 564 comments (clear)

  1. The Hurd and Linux by ukryule · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In an attempt to answer all the 'why not just use Linux?' questions, have a look at the man's explanation of it.

    Basically, Linux wasn't around when Hurd was started, and they believe it is different enough to complete/compete despite the grand rise of Linux. (Remarkably honest & non-political notes by RMS)

    Good luck to them - i hope it succeeds (we can't have Linux becoming a monopoly ... :-)

  2. Re:Hurd-GNU/Linux by Kilobug · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Pay attention to vocabulary:

    "The Hurd" (with the article) or "the GNU Hurd" is the set of servers that run on the top of a micro-kernel (GNU Mach for now, OSKit Mach soon, maybe L4 latter). The pair: The Hurd + -kernel can be used as a remplacement of the Linux kernl

    GNU is the full operating system created by the GNU project. It contains The Hurd and many other things. It can be called GNU/Hurd to avoid confusions.

    The Hurd is not a system, it's not a micro-kernel, it's not a kernel, it's a set of servers that run on top of a -kernel to replace a standard kernel.

  3. Re:What makes Hurd different? by phaze3000 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Does Hurd bring other advantages to it that Darwin doesn't already have?

    Yes, unlike Darwin, Hurd is Free, not just source-avaliable.

    It'll be interesting to see how Hurd performs against Linux once it's more mature. I strongly suspect that Linux will kick Hurd's arse performance wise, but that remains to be seen. Another Free operating system is of course always welcome.. :)

    --
    Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
  4. The Hurd and Linux ...and FreeBSD by BadlandZ · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Many may disagree, but there are a lot of people out there that prefer the BSD licence to the GNU/GPL license scheme.

    So, they built a (arguably) better OS based on BSD license, and called it FreeBSD. Then it forked and we have NetBSD, OpenBSD, and FreeBSD.

    Despite the great beauty of FreeBSD, and the vastly developed environment (countless ports that work flawlessly, providing users with easy to install and run applications), FreeBSD is not doing as well as Linux.

    Why? Buzzword Bingo. It's hard enough to compete with Microsoft to get a persons attention, and convince them to try a new OS. And, when the average person looks for a "alternative" Linux is the most obvious choice. FreeBSD gets only a small fraction of that attention, even if it is technically equivalent (or better in some people's opinion).

    IMHO, this is why HURD may fail. It's not because it won't be a good alternative, or because it will be technically inferior, because those will likely be untrue. Hurd will probably be competitive, but how will it get a market share?

    Linux will make vast roads to having a real-time kernel, embedded, etc... (QNX like), long before Hurd is ready. So, add the lack of press, lack of interest, and slow development, I can't help but think it will not see much success. How can you not see it in a similar light to the BSDs, even if the licensing is different?

  5. Folks who don't have passports and find this funny by JoeBuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So here's a guy who's been to about a hundred countries, lectures in French when he goes to France, regularly talks in person with influential people all over the world, and I'll bet that there are a significant group of people who not only have never been out of their own country but don't even have a passport, but find this joke funny.