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GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

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81–90 of 163 posts

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#81
post #60
post #15

Does anyone more familiar with Hurd know how they addressed performance issues encountered by other Mach-based kernels? I remember reading that one of Mach's bottlenecks was validating that each IPC message had proper permissions/access when sending them between processes due to the large number and frequency of messages.

Lets get to a usable feature set before optimization.

This is what I like about Haiku OS, they have focused a lot functionality and have that fairly solid, now optimization and stability is being worked on more closely.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#83

Next year will be the year of GNU Hurd, as well as The Desktop Linux Year and people really using HaikuOS on real hardware for years. You read it here first!

Ha I just booted Haiku on my desktop yesterday and it ran surprisingly well. Kind of took me back to 2001. If Firefox is stable on it I actually probably could switch from Windows (my needs are pretty simple at home).

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#84
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, that was a fluke, still below 10%, although getting closer with 7.53%. https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide

Both numbers are big, no? Especially given the complete dominance of linux in many other settings.

I think it is pretty impressive if you consider ChromeOS, with all of Google's resources behind it, is at 1.47%.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#86

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.

> but because of the "hurr durr" connotations I have no idea why you think this. You might be terminally online. Hurd is just like "herd" because it's a microkernel, and hurr durr is some social media/gamer shit a tiny amount of people started saying decades after Hurd started being developed.

[flagged]

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#87
post #79

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.

That seems like an awesome reason to use it in an era of most software is an AI slopfest.

Go for it. I'll probably stick to Linux, though.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#88
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…

Pretty much. I have been using Linux since 1998 but it became my only system back in about 2009 I think. It just isn't that geeky blued together unix-y thing any more. So long as your hardware is supported, thats it.

Yes, the games support was rough but that is almost a non issue nowadays. Thanks to Proton and Steamdeck support, I don't even check compatibility any more on games.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it even worse now? The faster computers get, the more that software-induced bottlenecks hurt.

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.

Hurd is like 36 years old at this point. More like adding 20% to a 10 second operation, compared to adding 20% to a 10ms operation.

Re: GNU Hurd News 2026-Q2

#90
post #37
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Eric S. Raymond opines that now that Microsoft makes its profits mainly from Azure, some product owner in Microsoft will be allowed to enshittify Windows for collection short-term profit, thus paving way for Linux on the desktop. https://x.com/esrtweet/status/2084605702203424896

Ah so X/Twitter is where ESR is nowadays. Kind of not surprised.
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