Phoronix reports that version 0.6 of GNU Hurd has been released. Before getting too excited about GNU Hurd, it's still bound to x86 32-bit and doesn't offer any compelling new features.
GNU Hurd 0.6 has "numerous cleanups and stylistic fixes" to the code-base, the message dispatching code in Hurd servers is now better, there's support for protected payloads of GNU March 1.5+, libz/libz2 are used as the decompressors to replace gz/bz2, the native fakeroot has improved, the performance of the integer hashing library has improved, and the init server has been split into the start-up server and a SysVinit-style program. The procfs and random translators were also merged.
More details on the new GNU Hurd release can be found via the 0.6 release announcement issued by Thomas Schwinge.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday April 17 2015, @06:11PM
...Why?
I don't mean that as flamebait or anything, I'm honestly curious. If I've got the history right, Hurd basically began because there were no open source Unix systems at the time. But we've got lots of options now, and Hurd sounds like it's about a decade behind at this point. With no signs that it's ever going to catch up. Is there some niche that Hurd fills or may fill, or at this point is it just something people work on solely because it's fun or interesting? Are there any use-cases which would really require a microkernel such that most mainstream *nix systems wouldn't work?
On an unrelated note...there's a car dealership around here named Hurd, and I always chuckle when I see their sticker on cars. Not really a name that would inspire much confidence to a geek! Of course, the other one I see all the time is "Tarbox", which seems even worse :)
(Score: 4, Funny) by CoolHand on Friday April 17 2015, @06:26PM
No systemd? :)
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(Score: 1, Redundant) by urza9814 on Friday April 17 2015, @06:37PM
I considered that, but there are still plenty of systemd-free Linux distros that seem to be far ahead of Hurd. For example, a two or three year old release of any distro that's been around that long :)
(Score: 2) by CoolHand on Friday April 17 2015, @07:19PM
Devuan is getting closer to a release.. I know they have some testing vm's to download and I think they have a testing .iso now and sound like it's getting close.. hopefully the succeed..
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(Score: 2) by present_arms on Friday April 17 2015, @07:24PM
No systemd here either :)
http://trinity.mypclinuxos.com/
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @07:48PM
You don't seem to be aware that, before they adopted (Linux-only) systemd, Debian had a spin that used a non-Linux kernel.
kFreeBSD [google.com]
Did that offer great utility relative to Torvalds' kernel?
You'll have to ask the folks that run/ran it.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday April 20 2015, @07:05PM
Actually, I am aware of that -- used to have a couple servers running Debian kFreeBSD. But BSD is far ahead of HURD too, isn't it?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @06:49PM
Last time I read the Hurd webpage, it spoke mainly of how the developers are using it for research. There's nothing wrong with that; experimenting with a technically unneeded kernal which may or may not end up creating a useful product someday. At the very least it allows people to hone their skills.