Congratulations, you got me interested.

Well.. if you know any lisp or are willing to learn, or know anything about compilers, or want to learn , email me.
teval at myrealbox.com
That goes for anyone

I would guess that with Gnu/RMS involved, the Hurd is GPL'ed. If RMS is not great as a team leader in terms of getting the job done, why doesn't someone simply improve it and re-release it? Maybe there's more to the technical problems than surmised here.

Hi

linux will never fade off, neither will windows, ppl have put m$ in such a possition u just cant ignore them or atleast major part of the public still swear by windows, and add to that so many popular apps still run only in windows, Flash is one of them, making linux usefriendly is not the only way to make it popular but we need to come out with good softwares to accomodate it, like flash dreamweaver, AutoCAD etc,

and talking about HURD sorry i dont known much abt it
will still to linux (GNU/Linux) for the present


peace
jayakrishnan

I believe that the reason that Hurd doesn't simply get a decent Project Manager is that RMS is very very possessive of Hurd. He wants it to be his baby and develop and turn out as he wants it. He won't simply hand it over.

The fact is that if he had allowed others to develop it back in the early days it could well have overtaken the Linux Kernel (according to Linux Format magazine). Unfortunately, Hurd has wallowed and foundered and even if it were to be released tomorrow it would be immature, undeveloped and would die a death. The Lin Kernel is now so far ahead that it would be pointless to switch.

I guess I don't understand. If it's GPL'ed, why doesnt' someone just "take" it (fork it). If the fork is better, it will become popular. RMS can't keep it if it's GPL'ed, no matter how possessive he is. I would think the fact that no one has indicates there's not much interest in it.

Disclaimer: I'm writing this offhand without actually referring to past articles I've read about GNU/Hurd... therefore, everything I post here are merely statements and assumptions and I do not intend to pass them off as facts.

First of all, I thought that GNU/Hurd actually predates Linux... and that all the GNU Toolkits (or is it Toolsets) are actually created specifically for GNU/Hurd. However, the GNU/Hurd project never actually became widespread due to the "problems" with its kernel.

This contributes to the rising popularity of Linux because...
1) It's vastly superior compared to the GNU/Hurd kernel.
2) It can run the GNU Toolkits (or Toolsets) flawlessly.

Again, this is what I've heard/read, and I don't necessarily believe it... I'm not a programmer, so I know jack about kernel design.

Ditto to the above Disclaimer. This has been carried out with my version of research which consists of barely remembered facts and a lot of suppositions.

I remember reading that the GNU/Hurd kernel was vastly superior to Linux Kernel, but got beaten to the punch because Linux was more ready. Hurd then wallowed - I believe internal wranglings on the team caused this - and Linux ran away with the title.

The problem for Hurd is not just age/maturity. We are only just now getting (a limited) number of manufacturers to accept Linux and write programs/port programs and drivers for and to it. Imagine, as a software company, spending time and money on programs which use Linux's infrastructure, just getting the programs to work and be accepted only then to be told that that's yesterday's news - it's all GNU/Hurd. They'd just write it off as a bad job and then go back to Windows.

Frankly I believe that Hurd, if allowed to continue as a sepeate project with the plan to bring it to the forefront could kill Linux/et al more surely than SCO or Microsoft.

I think Hurd should be forked. RMS isn't the person to take care of the kernel. Look at emacs, that was forked a long time ago after people saw RMS couldn't handle it. Today xemacs in my opinion is superior to emacs, and more intersting. Although development on emacs has changed since the fork, and RMS accepts more patches.
I think Hurd is definitely not the future. The Mach kernel is too old, and the microkernel/monolithic kernel architecture will be replaced by something like exokernels. They are faster then micro/monolithic kernels.
My prediction is that Hurd will stay in the shadows and release press announcements every year that it'll be done in a few years. It'll fall to the wayside, and be replaced by something that's cutting edge.

I think we'll probably find that with every RMS press release, fewer and fewer people will care. Then we'll have press releases from RMS saying how great it would have been if only we'd been intelligent enough to listen.

The latest release would enable you to fly, etc etc

Yup,
Last time Hurd was on /. wasn't because of it's merit. It was because RMS dismissed it's mentainer because he didn't agree with some of RMS' views on other projects. Not the kind of publicity you want when you are planning to get more developers.