This article is both a tutorial, a war story and a conceptual introduction to GNU Hurd in which I set up a cross-toolchain, and give a colorful tour through some rough edges of the GNU build system. My host system is Slackware Linux 14.1 (running on -current), i686 – which I find preferable due to its highly vanilla nature, running software almost entirely without distro-specific patching.
There was a review this past week on Distrowatch for Debian’s HURD spin.
http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20150727#hurd
The linked article is way more in depth as the distrowatch one seemed more to marvel at the fact that HURD was shipping in a somewhat usable state. I’ll state that again in case you’re not catching the magnitude of the moment: the HURD is shipping in a somewhat usable state at this moment. That’s like finding out Santa actually is real and does know how you’ve been behaving. A little magical, but more importantly, it raises so many questions!
How many people are involved in this operation? Is this a sustainable moment, or will it my understanding of reality be altered again in the near future? Is it as magical as I imagined it when I was growing up (and not just growing out)? Can reindeer really fly?
After reading the article, it does seem like there are some really interesting things being offered in HURDland and some ideas that are worth pursuing. I’m genuinely hoping we’re looking at a tipping point and the project can attract people who want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes, now that they have a functional point of reference. Interesting times indeed.
MechaShiva,
I find it difficult to share your optimism. Even niche markets are overcrowded and Hurd has no powerful backers.
Edited 2015-07-29 02:17 UTC