Neal Walfield announced the first release of RMGPT, which “is (or rather, aspires to one day be) a complete, portable implementation of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 threads [also] known as POSIX threads.” With this new pthreads library, it will soon be possible to run complex software packages on the Hurd, including the GNOME and KDE desktops, the OpenOffice suite, and the Mozilla web browser.
Hurd: RMGPT; POSIX Threads
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Anyone keeping up with the status of the Hurd/L4 port?
I was just wondering why they are still working on the Hurd. Wasn’t it supposed to be released about he same time as the first Linux kernel? After 10 years, I think you should move to other things.
The Hurd may not be a finished product yet (or ever). There are lots of reasons for working on it, though. First of all it is an interesting way to learn about operating systems. And quite a lot easier to get into than say… the Linux kernel. This is what makes The Hurd interesting to me.
Other reasons might include stubbornness or even stupidity. If I had been working on it for a long time and it actually finally looked like it could work, I won’t stop just now either.
And of course, GNU really needs their own kernel. We can’t have all this GNU/Linux stuff, now can we?
A tribute to the obos-sceptics :
– are these people crazy, developping their own kernel ?
– but it has practically no drivers !
– it’ll never catch up to windows/linux
– who wants an OS other than Linux anyway, come join us or feel our scorn
My understanding:
HURD = Herd (of) UNIX Replacing Daemons
= Microkernel with many components which start and stop as needed, as opposed to Linux which is a monolithic single unit
???
If so:
Why so long? Linux is obviously a moving target and under constant development but it worked as a self-hosting environment a very short time after Torvalds initial release… HURD appears never to have properly made that leap , if it cant even run POSIX apps yet
Is it really so hard to code this kind of kernel? Or have most of stallmans developers left to work on Gnu/Linux instead of pure Gnu kernel?
Good question, really: Why aren’t more GNU opensource people working on the HURD kernel? Why is it taking so long to develop a usable kernel? Shouldn’t the “benefits” of opensource apply to the kernel, as well?
Oh, and Go OBOS!! 😉
We can’t even get a flamewar going on with HURD, much less a decent discussion. I guess HURD is flying below the radar.