Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

gnu.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 163 posts

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#101

Post by [deleted] »

floxy wrote: post #94
darksaints wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mach's problem wasn't that it had slow IPC, but rather that in terms of microkernels, Mach was pretty damn big. There are some very fast microkernels out there, like the L4 family, which negate the IPC overhead of microkernels by being small enough to fit entirely in the L2 cache of most processors. Linux may only have the single IPC call per round trip, but it's a fucking huge kernel and there is typically a ton of…

>small enough to fit entirely in the L2 cache Shouldn't the "hot" path fit in the L1 of a "modern" processor (100 kB+)?

[deleted]

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#102

Post by Klonoar »

inigyou wrote: post #16

Cool to finally see some small silly tech stuff here that isn't trying to make money.

This entire site is a propaganda piece for one of the largest incubators in tech. Just because it has “hacker” in the name doesn’t mean it represents tech.

Like, the point is tech making money. You’re in the wrong place if you’re looking for something other than that.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#104

Post by lynx97 »

bofadeez wrote: post #96
inigyou wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This should be a lesson about providing a product versus providing a technology. Ubuntu is "like Windows but not" which is mostly relevant to people boycotting Windows. Steam Deck is "a gamebox" which people who already like games might want to buy. Bazzite is "a thing that turns your computer into a gamebox." Of course, people don't actually want gameboxes either - they want to play games - but it's a few steps clos…

[flagged]

Because it is way cheaper?

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#105

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

kristopolous wrote: post #98
inigyou wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah GNU hasn't really been involved for a long time. It's Mozilla/Linux in reality. Not to mention the totally GNU-free distributions, like Alpine.

If you read the historical archives, Gnu was kinda late in the game with Linux. They were distributing the Joliets 386-BSD and NetBSD and had some drama with trying to do Linux. Debian is a historical spinoff of this. I gave a conference talk about this about 4 years ago. There may be slight errors in my recollection

Where would someone read more about that history? Sounds up my alley:)

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#106

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

stackghost wrote: post #61
oytis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are calling a Linux (sorry, GNU/Linux) killer small silly stuff?

I know this is in jest, but because of the "hurr durr" connotations, only the absolute most bearded of free software zealot neckbeards are going to ever run GNU Hurd beyond simplytest driving it. Open source continues its unbroken streak of showing us why naming things is important.

Right, which is why something with an offensive name like git could never take off.

Anyways, HURD's biggest problems are performance and perennially missing important features (2026 and no USB support)

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#107

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #45
doubled112 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could see just powering through because modern hardware is fast enough to do so being an option. Adding 20% to a 10 second operation is a lot longer on a wall clock than adding 20% to a 1 second operation.

What even is a 20% delta in performance? Like a five year old difference in hardware design. If I could get a micro kernel with a better security profile than Linux, that doesn’t sound so bad. I could easily be using a ten year old chip for my day to day browsing and probably wouldn’t notice.

> If I could get a micro kernel with a better security profile than Linux, that doesn’t sound so bad.

I suggest that you look at genode/sculpt:)

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#108

Post by helterskelter »

adrian_b wrote: post #21
lynx97 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hurd will have its day once Linux makes it on the desktop :-)

While I upvoted this, as being true for the general population, for me Linux has made it on the desktop (and laptop) much more than 2 decades ago, around 2003, when the remaining problems that had forced me to use dual-booting with Windows had been solved (i.e. when it became possible in Linux to play movies, read DVDs and use TV tuners). When that happened, I wiped out Windows from my computers. If you have a pro to…

I've managed to run Linux just about exclusively since probably just before I was a teen in the early 2000's. I think I bought Red Hat 8 or 9 or something like that at CompUSA on a whim and proceeded to call customer support to get help doing basic tasks on the desktop which they very kindly helped me with. Man I was feeling like a seriously 1337 h4x0r.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#110

Post by bruce511 »

adastra22 wrote: post #100
maplant wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as GNU/Linux, is in fact, just Linux.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact systemd/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, systemd plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather one more free component of a fully functioning systemd system, made useful by the systemd unit files, target definitions and vital service managers comprising a full OS as defined by Lennart Poetterin…

Whats in a name?

Personally I use Google/Windows at work, and Steam/Windows at home. I also have a Meta/Android OS for my phone and a Garmin/Auto OS for my car.

My websites are hosted on AWS/Linux, and I browse on Comcast/Internet. My entertainment comes from Warner/Netflix. Or Disney/Disney)

I call it Linux, when I call it at all.

Post reply on HN