Re: about GNU Hurd

[Michael Banck]

Hi,

On Mon, Jul 16, 2007 at 03:26:54PM +0200, Jonathan Carter wrote:
> Daniel Martin wrote:
> >I was unable to access that site, perhaps the server is down. The latest
> >snapshots are from January 2006. Alfred has stated that there is
> >currently little point in creating a new snapshot.
> 
> Is GNU/Hurd now an abandoned project? I always hoped that it would some 
> day see some kind of a version 1.0 come to light. Linux is ok though, 
> but it seems that it's going to stay on GPLv2 for at least a while.

OK, there might be some terminology issues here, not sure:

 - GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the traditional Unix
   kernel, aimed at extensibility, and giving as much freedom to its
   Users as possible.  It is closely related to (currently) GNU Mach
   (the underlying microkernel) and GNU libc (providing the GNU Hurd's
   POSIX personality for interoperation with legacy (and GNU) software)

 - GNU/Hurd (or just GNU) is the GNU project's operating
   system/distribution.  

 - Debian GNU/Hurd is the Debian project's version of the GNU operating
   system (or a GNU/Hurd distribution, if you like).

There have been 0.1 and 0.2 releases of both the GNU Hurd and GNU in the
mid 90s, no futher releases have been made except for a couple of
development snapshots of the GNU system done by ams around end-2005
beginning of 2006.  While the GNU system development seems to have
slowed down somewhat over the last year (and was totally dormant between
mid-90s and mid-00s), development on the GNU Hurd (and GNU Mach and of
course GNU libc) is being continued.  That development is independent of
the GNU system though, and is being discussed/coordinated at
address@hidden and not on this list.  Debian GNU/Hurd is also actively
developped and discussed/coordinated at address@hidden
No proper release of Debian GNU/Hurd exists until today, but more or
less stable snapshots together with an installer are made available as
ISO images from time to time.

To get back to your question; neither GNU Hurd nor GNU/Hurd are
abandoned projects, but the latter is currently less visibly developped
(I am no insider, so cannot comment on any private hacking going on
behind the curtains).


cheers,

Michael