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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.

15 of 312 comments (clear)

  1. In future news by c++ · · Score: 4, Funny

    We're proud to announce that GNU Hurd can now save and load files.

    1. Re:In future news by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Obligatory XKCD: http://xkcd.com/1508/

  2. 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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    Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The microkernel architecture makes it quite cool.

    3. Re:What's the point by short · · Score: 5, Informative

      Thanks to the microkernel architecture you will no longer have to reboot system just to get rid of that stale lock on an accidentally removed USB disk or unmountable --bind mount in /proc/mounts due to non-existing user/usecount or due to some crashed driver locking up your PCI device etc. I could transparently restart crashed ntfs.sys emulated under Linux in 2003 while Linux kernel still can't do that with its native filesystems.

    4. Re:What's the point by short · · Score: 3, Insightful

      VMs are a poor man's a workaround of missing microkernel features. Do you mount all your filesystems just via a VM? And if you do then all the user programs have to run inside that VM. And so restarting the VM is as painful as restarting the whole machine. What's the point of such VM then?

    5. Re:What's the point by dissy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What's the point of continuing with Hurd?

      For the same reason anyone does something they enjoy for fun and recreation, namely so we don't become hollow and joyless, reserved to asking on forums why other people do things they enjoy :P

      I note you both read slashdot and posted to slashdot today, as well as aren't out working to do something "useful".

      Don't you think it a tad off to spend your free time doing things you enjoy at the same time as questioning other people doing the same?

    6. Re:What's the point by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Odd. Linux has sound, full 64-bit support, is free (as in both speech and beer), and I didn't have to write any of it.

      I'm having trouble seeing HURD as being superior to that.

    7. 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.

    8. Re:What's the point by ooloorie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thanks to the microkernel architecture you will no longer have to reboot system just to get rid of that stale lock on an accidentally removed USB disk or unmountable

      There is an implicit false dichotomy there, namely "ancient design monolithic kernel" and "ancient-style microkernel". There are many other choices.

      I could transparently restart crashed ntfs.sys emulated under Linux in 2003 while Linux kernel still can't do that with its native filesystems.

      Actually, since NTFS under Linux runs in user space, yes you can. In fact, for many kernel services (USB, file systems, networking, etc.), the kernel can call upon separate servers to handle those services. And that's another problem with microkernels: their design focuses not on what users need and the question of how to best provide that, but rather on a mechanism.

  3. Open software by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    These days Open/Free software is more important than ever. With closed kernels and binary blobs you have no idea what kind of code is running on your system. It would be nice to have a true Open kernel running on true Open hardware.

  4. 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.

  5. Re:Experimental audio support by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does that include Sound Blaster for IBM's MicroChannel Architecture?

    No, currently it only supports setting the bit that puts a positive pulse on the PC speaker. Work is in progress on support for resetting that bit, so in the meantime it's a maximum of one click sound per session.

    The cool part, though, is that with the microkernel architecture, this is all managed via userspace code!

  6. 1995 all over by Barbarian · · Score: 4, Funny

    I do recall, in the early days of slashdot that the GNU/Hurd enthusiasts were proclaiming how silly people were to be wasting time on Linux, when Hurd was just around the corner. I was in high school then. It's great to hear that audio works, maybe one of my grandchildren one day will be able to actually use it for video.