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GNU Hurd 0.6 released

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Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#61

Post by danellis »

ggchappell wrote: post #40

Do we need some new terminology? There does not seem to be a word for the kind of thing Hurd is. "Replacement for the Unix kernel" seems a bit wordy. It's a thing that does what ordinary folk expect a kernel to do. So technically, it's a kind of virtual kernel , I suppose, but that would be far too easy to misunderstand. On a completely different note, just what is it about some software projects that stretches them…

> So technically, it's a kind of virtual kernel

Technically it's not any kind of kernel. Mach is the kernel, and Hurd is a collection of servers.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#62

Post by orthecreedence »

jheriko wrote: post #6
duncan_bayne wrote: post #2

I'm sure there will be a few people chuckling at the news that the Hurd is still under development. Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s.

i'm chuckling a bit. but then the whole GNU ecosystem is about catering to a tiny minority with special priorities... inside of an even tinier minority of users of open source OSes. I'm sure I am just an outsider who doesn't really understand the needs or the motivations... Linux does well in the server world, and Apple get a lot of attention, but even then, between them, they account for something like 4% of OS inst…

I like to think of it this way: if I'm writing an open-source library that I want others to include in their projects, the best way to get adoption (or to just make fellow dev's lives easier) is MIT/BSD/similar-style licensing. I personally don't mind if people cut or carve up my code, use it in closed-source, etc as long as they keep my name on it.

When it comes to building an actual app that's open-source (and not meant to be included in other projects), GPL is a really great way to go. In my mind, it protects the end-users of the app such that it can never be infected by closed-source software, via me or by anyone else, as long as it stays GPL.

For things like protecting a project against the hooked tentacles of the US government's spy machine, it's a great tool. Sure I can put in backdoors, but everyone in the world will see it.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#63

Post by bcg1 »

huxley wrote: post #41
wildfire wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Thanks for bringing back visions of the 1990s. These arguments were tiresome then; they are boring now. You are conflating GNU, GPL and LGPL. The GNU system may never be as successful as you think. But portions like The GNU Compiler Collection (gcc, go, etc.) and GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard) and thinks like GNU Emacs are the standard which others are measured against. Second the "absolutely awful" licenses; being u…

That was Linksys not Netgear. re: GPL/LGPL being the most successful software licenses, that seems to be changing in favour of permissive licenses like MIT/BSD/Apache Back in 2013, Aaron Williamson of the Software Freedom Law Center did an analysis of licenses used on Github. The MIT license outnumbered all variations of GPL + LGPL licenses combined, second to MIT on the list was BSD (of course, it should be mentione…

Richard Fontana analyzed Debian packages... guess what? Mostly GPL.

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#64

Post by duncan_bayne »

meddlepal wrote: post #57
duncan_bayne wrote: post #2

I'm sure there will be a few people chuckling at the news that the Hurd is still under development. Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s.

Oh the humanity that a company you willingly purchase a license from restricts you from doing whatever you want with it. Cry me a river.

You're perfectly correct, of course. You bought it, you deal with it.

I just don't understand why developers, of all people, persist with systems like OSX and Windows.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#65

Post by acomjean »

They don't make this easy:

quote: Also note that you cannot run the Hurd "in isolation": you'll need to add further components such as the GNU Mach microkernel and the GNU C Library (glibc), to turn it into a runnable system.

Of course making it easy is a ton of work. If they want to gain some traction maybe they should work on a version of the OS in Rust. That would be interesting. glibRust.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#66

Post by ghshephard »

duncan_bayne wrote: post #2

I'm sure there will be a few people chuckling at the news that the Hurd is still under development. Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s.

Having a $99 Developer ID is what I would consider an absolute minimum bar to be allowed to create a kext that can cause all sorts of havoc.

And, as others have noted - you can always disable that feature if you don't like it.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#67

Post by ghshephard »

e40 wrote: post #8
duncan_bayne wrote: post #2

I'm sure there will be a few people chuckling at the news that the Hurd is still under development. Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s.

Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. Oh, no, won't this kill or greatly hurt the hackintosh community's ability to install on non-Apple hardware?

Given that this is a user controllable option - no.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#68

Post by quadrangle »

dragonwriter wrote: post #22
duncan_bayne wrote: post #2

I'm sure there will be a few people chuckling at the news that the Hurd is still under development. Yesterday I learned from one of my colleagues that the newer versions of OSX will only run kernel extensions signed by Apple. The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s.

> The need for the GNU project is as great now as it was in the 1980s. The need for F/OSS operating systems (kernel and related tools) is as great as it was in the 1980s. The significance of the GNU project in meeting that need is less than it was in the 1980s.

The GNU project is still significant, if less so overall, but HURD is the least important element since Linux-libre works fine.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#69

Post by azinman2 »

beefsack wrote: post #44
JohnTHaller wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows code signing is performed using a certificate available from the usual certificate authorities (Verisign, Thawte, etc, etc) that you pay to verify your identity and issue you a signing certificate. Apple is the only one that enables OSX signing and it's done in conjunction with your Apple ID that you pay Apple a yearly fee to enable developer abilities on.

The fact that this became a back and forth of people arguing which is worst just highlights the fact that this sort of low level infrastructure needs to be free and open.

Does it? But then who polices it?

Id be curious to know of an instance where apple abuses their power and denied a competitor the ability to sign a binary.

Personally I'd much rather have someone like apple be able to have some kind of audit where by malicious extensions can be revoked. There might be some super clever way that you could do this with the block chain or the like, but ultimately I don't know how this doesn't come down to a person somewhere deciding.

Re: GNU Hurd 0.6 released

#70

Post by azinman2 »

bsaul wrote: post #12
ics wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless your post is blasted into oblivion it could just as well be fat-fingering an upvote on mobile.

Yes, that the weirdest UX feature of HN. In the age of mobile, having two 10px high buttons with opposite meaning separated by 5pixel is absurd.

Do you need a minimum karma level for that? I don't ever have any down arrows and have always wondered. I'm near 500 karma so kinda surprised. Probably in some faq that I'm too lazy to lookup
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