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GNU Hurd Begins Supporting Sound, Still Working On 64-bit & USB Support (phoronix.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the pretty-soon-big-and-fancy-like-gnu dept.

An anonymous reader writes: GNU developer Samuel Thibault presented at this weekend's FOSDEM conference about the current state of GNU Hurd. He shared that over the past year they've started working on experimental sound support as their big new feature. They also have x86 64-bit support to the point that the kernel can boot, but not much beyond that stage yet. USB and other functionality remains a work-in-progress. Those curious about this GNU kernel project can find more details via the presentation media.

5 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. What's the point by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's the point of continuing with Hurd?
    I mean, apart from making make laugh whenever they have "news".

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    1. Re:What's the point by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This is an interesting question. It's one thing if the HURD was making progress but based on this kind of news it would seem that technology is actually being developed faster than the kernel.

    2. Re:What's the point by short · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The sooner you will write that the sooner you will get it. That's all what Free software guarantees you and I find it superior to anything else.

    3. Re:What's the point by dissy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Today I worked on an addon for a popular open source javascript-based code editor, added some minor features to one of my open source projects and added a bunch of much needed unittests to another of my open source projects.

      I also took a few minutes to read some Slashdot posts and make a few comments.

      Amazingly, both can be done in a single day!

      Indeed! Just as the Hurd team can play on Hurd and contribute to other more useful projects :}

      And I apologize for the accusation as well, it's just that the vast majority of people who question others free time activities have a high likelihood of both demanding productivity from others while not living to the same standard themselves.

      I suppose it was mostly the fact I quite literally formed the thought "I wonder which of the top three posts will ask 'what is the point?'" as I clicked the article to open the comments, and there this was right at the top in spot 1 with that exact phrase and already modded up to max.

      But I am pleasantly surprised for you shattering that expectation.

  2. Re:It's important for a tech ecosystem by ledow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree.

    But they have to be usable.

    Technically, FreeDOS had USB before GNU Hurd.

    And 64-bit.

    And that had to emulate a Microsoft piece of software not that much older than itself too, to the point that all DOS programs (even things like BIOS Flashing utilities) still work.

    GNU Hurd is just a dead-end. An intellectual project of little practical use. It's like pushing for MINIX or similar. Yes, alternative OS are all good. But only if they are vaguely in the same decades as the machines you can buy today.