Re: What do you need from the Hurd for your day-to-day tasks?

[olafBuddenhagen]

Hi,

On Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 07:13:44PM +0700, Ivan Shmakov wrote:
> >>>>> <olafBuddenhagen@gmx.net> writes:

>  > However, I have been planning to get an extra router box for quite
>  > some time now -- so that is really only a temporary consideration.
>  > (Holding me back so far is the excessive cost of suitable x86-based
>  > boxes, and the inconvenience and limitations of MIPS-based ones...)
> 
>       I'm not quite sure on what boxes were considered, but
>       personally, I've ended up using an Intel Atom 330-based system
>       in a Mini-ITX (InWin BM648) case as a router (1 Ethernet
>       interface on-board + 1 PCI + 1 USB).

I was thinking of something that actually resembles a "normal" router --
small, silent, robust, and not consuming more than a few watts.

The problem is that standard WLAN routers have too little RAM to run
Debian, and I don't feel like getting to grips with OpenWRT, or in fact
any other distribution. My time is too precious for that.

There are a few Geode-based x86 boxes that mostly fit the bill -- but
the affordable ones all have three network ports at best. For a router,
I want at least four or five -- I don't want to run an extra hub/switch,
which would effectively double the power consumption... x86-based
router-like machines with 4+ ports are very expensive OTOH. (Around
250 Euro at least.)

I've also seen some pretty powerful MIPS-based router barebones (680
MHz, 256 MiB RAM) with enough ports. These are quite affordable actually
at around 100 Euro. I'm just unsure whether the fact that they are
MIPS-based rather than x86 wouldn't cause too much hassle...

>       ??? message passing on top of Linux:
> 
>         ??? with a user-space daemon;
> 
>         ??? with a kernel module.
> 
>       Do I understand it correctly that once a Mach could be made to
>       run in user-space (the same trick as with User-mode Linux),
>       making Hurd run on top of it will be straightforward?
> 
>       This effectively makes the Hurd only a single command, namely:
> 
> # apt-get install hurd 
> 
>       away from from a J. Random (Debian) GNU/Linux user.
> 
>       For those wishing for a better experience, a Linux kernel module
>       version of Mach could be developed at some time later.
> 
>       Then, the sole question will be the tasks that Hurd covers.
>       Eventually, some users may find that they use little or no
>       native Linux modules, but instead use the Hurd ones.  The
>       transition to GNU/Hurd[/Linux] will be over for them.

Indeed that's a scenario I have been pondering for some time now. One of
the many projects on my ToDo list...

-antrik-