GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2 • Hacker News Board

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#121

Post by farfatched » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:07 AM UTC

0xpgm wrote: post #99

api wrote: post #68

Someone should do the blasphemous thing and have Opus 5 finish HURD. Actually in all seriousness reviving dead interesting FOSS projects is one use for AI coding I've thought about.

Are AIs good enough at doing novel work that they have yet to encounter? My guess is that the GNU/HURD people are doing a lot of novel work that doesn't yet exist.

How novel is it really?

You think what they're doing isn't covered in the intersection of OS books, OS papers, other OSs, osdev, random GitHub projects?

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#122

Post by antonvs » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:09 AM UTC

darksaints wrote: post #66

maplant wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm saying is that Hurd is just a kernel in the same way that Linux is also just a kernel

The snark artist in me would say that Linux is a kernel plus tens of millions of lines of code that absolutely should not be in the kernel but are.

Have you tried asking an LLM to fix that?

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#123

Post by farfatched » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:14 AM UTC

I would love GNU Hurd to succeed.

That said, if there's a resurgence in microkernel, it will probably come from the Rust community.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#124

Post by antonvs » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:16 AM UTC

xaviervn wrote: post #53

oytis wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is not GNU/Linux. GNU Hurd is a totally different kernel.

The comment was calling Hurd a Linux killer. One hopes that was intended as a joke.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#125

Post by antonvs » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:25 AM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #106

stackghost wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Hardly any Americans would recognize “git” as an offensive word. That would not have been a barrier to adoption in the largest single software market in the world.

I grew up in one of the other ex-British colonies and we didn’t use “git” either. It’s a pretty localized word. Apparently it only came to prominence after the empire was already collapsing, so didn’t spread much.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#126

Post by ButlerianJihad » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:35 AM UTC

antonvs wrote: post #125

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Hardly any Americans would recognize “git” as an offensive word. That would not have been a barrier to adoption in the largest single software market in the world. I grew up in one of the other ex-British colonies and we didn’t use “git” either. It’s a pretty localized word. Apparently it only came to prominence after the empire was already collapsing, so didn’t spread much.

Monty Python's Flying Circus spread it far and wide in the English-speaking world.

Was there any insult that Monty Python didn't use? Some of their gags literally involved opening up the thesaurus and reciting an entry. Most of their sketches involved hurling insults at one another. It was a Petri Dish of British slang!

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#127

Post by JAlexoid » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 9:45 AM UTC

farfatched wrote: post #123

I would love GNU Hurd to succeed. That said, if there's a resurgence in microkernel, it will probably come from the Rust community.

I agree. Operating systems have become too fast.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#128

Post by panick21_ » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:25 AM UTC

floxy wrote: post #91

panick21_ wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you want to do more IPC, its basically linear with the increase in performance. So the amount of overhead stays the same basically. At least in IPC benchmarks and those tend to be important. Making that fast is fundamental to any OS.

So for an I/O heavy program like a web browser, what percentage of CPU time is spent in syscalls? Someone must have that data for Firefox. 1%? 10%? And then that moves to 1.1% (or 11%)? And then every other program is even less affected? Curious if anyone is in the know.

It depends on the OS, some OS have some way to do IO that gets around that. iouring or things like that. I don't know how Hurd does IO.

Most microkernals have methods to do IO in a different way. If they don't then likely they would pretty slow when doing I/O heavy operations.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#129

Post by tremon » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 10:30 AM UTC

darksaints wrote: post #66

maplant wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I'm saying is that Hurd is just a kernel in the same way that Linux is also just a kernel

The snark artist in me would say that Linux is a kernel plus tens of millions of lines of code that absolutely should not be in the kernel but are.

Ok, I'll bite. Which parts of the kernel should not be there, given that Linux is not a microkernel? I maintain that most of the code is there for hardware support, for security, or to support user-space application models.

I'll grant you the in-kernel nfs server and ipsec implementations, but those are not tens of millions of lines of code. The only way I can reach that number is by lobbing off a huge part of device drivers into userspace, but that's not really an interesting discussion as it seems purely subjective.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#130

Post by masfoobar » Thu, Aug 06, 2026, 11:13 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #119

bruce511 wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yep. Stallman was just a bit salty that GNU turned out to be barely relevant. Most of the code in a so-called "GNU/Linux" system is not GNU. There really was a GNU project, but it was just an attempt to harmonize system tools across all open and proprietary Unices.

> GNU turned out to be barely relevant

GCC, GDB, CoreUtils, etc - A COLLECTION of useful programs alongside a kernel such as Linux.

Barely relevant?

We owe our thanks to the GNU project. If Linus did not create Linux, something else would have taken it's place. "Maybe" HURD... or maybe something else.