is there anyone here who can talk about this? i want to know what the real original gnu micro-kernel system feels like without the immigrant linux kernel
i have a spare partition and thought it might be fun to do this this weekend -so i have downloaded the gnu/ hurd debian distro and am about to start the process.
if it all goes to shit - is there anyone here who can help me with this?

Well, I have Debian GNU/Hurd installed in a VirtualBox on my Slackware laptop. I'm in no way an expert, of course. It's an interesting system, though installation is somewhat tricky compared to Linux or, say, OpenSolaris. Once installed, it's quite nice, though. Have fun!

On the Debian/Hurd page it says
That is, I think, the reason why GNU/Linux is preferred (while Hurd is part of the GNU project and interesting for enthusiasts).
I found these pages (for everyone's interest):

• the Hurd project page http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/ and
• a live-CD project http://superunprivileged.org/

while reading the docs & preparing to install hurd - i read that it was recommended that users be familiar with debian way of doing things...i have being using freebsd for a few months now. it was really really painful and time consuming to get it running - especially xorg - and i still had some serious problems. You would think i was crazy if i told you how many installs / re-installs i have done over the last few months.

Anyway, i did a test install of the basic debian on my laptop and it worked like a charm: the freebsd guys were saying that in order to run gnome i needed at least 256MB ram - and all that jazz - thats why it would not work in freebsd.
To cut a long story short - debian works really smooth on my laptop. I stripped out freebsd from my desktop this morning and have already got an slick fresh debian install up and running.

I did not plan to do all this at all. So now, i will be looking to install hurd on my spare partition next weekend.

Freebsd is great - if you are trying to run some kind of corporation server. But for a simple lone home user, like me - it lags far behind the linux distros for basic hardware support (to usb printer for example).
Im glad i tried it though...but from now on - I am a debian man. I am a debian newbie.

you can even run a port of debian that has a freebsd kernel!

http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/