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Hurd/L4 Developer Marcus Brinkmann Interviewed
wikinerd writes "A few years ago when the GNU OS was almost complete, the kernel was the last missing piece, and most distributors combined GNU with the Linux kernel. But the GNU developers continued their efforts and unveiled the Hurd in 1990s, which is currently a functioning prototype. After the Mach microkernel was considered insufficient, some developers decided to start a new project porting the Hurd on the more advanced L4 microkernel using cutting-edge operating system design, thus creating the Hurd/L4. Last February one of the main developers, Marcus Brinkmann, completed the process initialization code and showed a screenshot of the first program executed on Hurd/L4 saying 'The dinner is prepared!' Now he has granted an interview about Hurd/L4, explaining the advantages of microkernels, the Hurd/L4 architecture, the project's goals and how he started the Debian port to Hurd."
GNU made most of the core programs that Linux normally uses, and they are universally considered excellent. So why is it so hard for them to make a kernel?
Is it just loss of interest after Linux became popular?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
The kernel is the last missing piece? What's the first piece, an integrated browser?
This has been and always will be the essence of the OSS development structure. The illusion is that the OSS world is somehow united. The Hurd project has NOTHING to do with Linux. Or any BSD. Or Arch Linux. Or the GIMP. Just as Macromedia Dreamweaver has NOTHING to do with Frontpage. It's not splintering...they're completely different things.
BenCurry.net
What a waste of time. What are they trying to accomplish by still working on the HURD?
Be fair: let us all know what you do in your spare time so we can sneer at you too.
The real Ralph Yarro posts as Anonymous Coward. Anyone else is an impostor.
What a waste of time. What are they trying to accomplish by still working on the HURD? Linux has already far surpassed it in every catagory (hardware support, software support, usability, performance, etc.) and is just as Free as the HURD, so what gives?
On the other hand, I guess I'm not the only one of this mind, as it obviously wouldn't have taken 20 years to get to the point where a program can finally run on it if everybody else with development skills didn't also believe it a total waste of their time.
From the interview:
Security and stability are tightly related issues, and they are major motivations for any microkernel based system. However, we feel that security does not need to translate to loss of freedom. With a bit of extra trouble, you can be secure and even increase the freedom of the user. This is what we want to do.
In the Hurd, the operating system is implemented as a set of servers, and each runs in its own address space. Of course there are some essential system services which better not crash, or the system will reboot immediately as a last attempt to salvage the situation. But for many other services, a crash is not fatal. If a filesystem server crashes (except for the root filesystem), you can just restart it (or it is restarted automatically by the system). Dead-locks require manual interaction, and you will have to kill the hanging server to remove it from the system and release associated resources.
The Hurd achieves its stability and security by protocols between components that require no mutual trust. So, although a user can add their own filesystem to the filesystem hierarchy, and the parent filesystem will redirect accesses through such a mount point to the user's filesystem, there is nothing the user's filesystem can do that can affect the rest of the system in a bad way. The Hurd servers are written in a way to assume the worst from a communication partner, namely that it is malicious, as an implication you get fault-tolerance for free.
Many of the posts above say Hurd is a waste of time. I suspect the Hurd team just enjoys hacking. I really don't think they care if its a "waste" of time. They just love what they do. I think it's awesome to be so dedicated to your craft. Even if the Hurd never works... I bet they will still look back on the whole experience as something pretty cool.
My own personal experience: I worked on an 8 month student project that in many ways failed in the end. But I would never consider that a waste of time. I learned so much and had a blast doing it.
-bdb