I have just read about the release of a truely GNU microkernel which RMS (Stallman) has released. Called Hurd (get the title now? )

Apparently this fulfils RMS's dream of a truely GNU system as opposed to a GNU/Linux system (which is what we really should be saying).

Tell me if I'm wrong here, but isn't this just more diversity which we don't really need. We have seen the trouble of specific distro kernels being produced, and some of the enhancements they have made not being put back into the orginal kernel.

Will anybody care about this new microkernel? Will it create more confusion? Will it be actually used?



Just how far do you take your beliefs and put them into practice?

www.gnu.org/software/hurd/

my opinion:
it's not even ready! and it started even before linux came into the picture.

i think it was James McCormack who commented on VRML, that a bunch of ideal standards alone are almost useless. get something concrete going and then work on it from there.

time and again, it has been proven that there is wisdom in those words.

eg. this extract from the website http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/faq.en.html#s1:

start of extract:
1.7. Why is `/usr' a symbolic link to `.'?

{MB} The distinction between `/' and `/usr' has historical reasons. Back when Unix systems were booted from two tapes, a small root tape and a big user tape. Today, we like to use different partitions for these two spaces. The Hurd throws this historical garbage away. We think that we have found a more flexible solution called shadow filesystems. Unfortunately, support for shadowed filesystems is not yet implemented.
:end of extract


this does not impress me given that this project has been around longer than linux has. and that linux has matured much more than this.