It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2015.
This is a snapshot of Debian “sid” at the time of the stable Debian “jessie” release (April 2015), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.
A relatively easy way to check the status of Hurd.
Don’t get me wrong; I think academic exercises are great. But what I don’t know is what is the primary motivation for Hurd. I get the point from before Linux came along. And regardless of what Linux says, I like microkernels. But what is the driving force behind Hurd? And does anyone use it in production anywhere? Is it complete enough that you can really use it on a desktop? What about drivers? I suspect those are the biggest issue.
Not yet, Hurd is only recently becoming usable (even on a basic level), and it will likely be quite some time before it will be a real alternative for typical *nix users.
Releases now are more for devs, early adopters, or anyone who’s curious about a new Unix system.
Early adopters…lol
Err, yes, I should have said early testers
The way I understand the whole issue, as Linux kernel gets more and more features, it slowly becomes rather huge harder-and-harder-to-maintain single blob. This is where microkernel architecture has a clear advantage.
Hurd makes Haiku’s development pace feel like a supercharged car.
The point of Hurd is to surpass all Linux and Unix kernels. The aim is not to compete with Linux/Unix or so, but to become much better. There is no point in releasing another Linux/Unix-esque kernel, no. Hurd will be far superior to all other kernels. That is the outspoken goal. That is why development is slow, it is pure research into new territory.
EDIT;
http://www.informit.com/articles/printerfriendly/1180992
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd-paper.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/faq.html
Edited 2015-04-30 17:32 UTC
Are they succeeding with that? Even just on paper?
What are the advantages for us laymen?
Now that systemd has ruined normal Debian, it’s nice to see an alternative making progress. Sadly it will be a while before I can put HURD in production.