summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/hurd/status.mdwn
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'hurd/status.mdwn')
-rw-r--r--hurd/status.mdwn37
1 files changed, 32 insertions, 5 deletions
diff --git a/hurd/status.mdwn b/hurd/status.mdwn
index a84d7c45..b4ece046 100644
--- a/hurd/status.mdwn
+++ b/hurd/status.mdwn
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+[[meta copyright="Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation,
+Inc."]]
[[meta license="""[[toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[toggleable
id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
@@ -8,19 +9,44 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license
is included in the section entitled
[[GNU_Free_Documentation_License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
-The Hurd team doesn't create hurd-only releases, but instead relies
-on a distribution done by folks from **Debian**.
+The Hurd, together with the GNU Mach microkernel, the GNU C Library
+and the other GNU and non-GNU programs in the GNU system, provide a
+rather complete and usable operating system today. It may not be ready
+for production use, as there are still many bugs and missing features.
+However, it should be a good base for further development and
+non-critical application usage.
+
+The GNU system (also called GNU/Hurd) is completely self-contained
+(you can compile all parts of it using GNU itself). You can run
+several instances of the Hurd in parallel, and debug even critical
+servers in one Hurd instance with gdb running on another Hurd
+instance. You can run the X window system, applications that use it,
+and advanced server applications like the Apache webserver.
+
+On the negative side, the support for character devices (like sound
+cards) and other hardware is mostly missing. Although the POSIX
+interface is provided, some additional interfaces like POSIX shared
+memory or semaphores are still under development.
+
+All this applies to the current development version, and not to the
+last release (0.2). We encourage everybody who is interested to try
+out the latest development version, and send feedback to the Hurd
+developers.
+
+
+The Hurd team doesn't create Hurd-only releases, but instead relies
+on a distribution done by folks from *Debian*.
That Debian version closely tracks the progress of the Hurd
(and often includes many new features),
so little would be gained by creating an official pure Hurd release.
-The Debian GNU/Hurd [[distribution|running/debian]] offers **livecds and qemu images**
+The Debian GNU/Hurd [[distribution|running/debian]] offers *LiveCDs and QEMU images*
to test-drive the Hurd in a real life system with access to about
50% of the Debian software archive.
The most recent version of the Debian port at the time of writing
-is **Debian GNU/Hurd K16**.
+is *Debian GNU/Hurd K16*.
That said, the last official release of the Hurd
@@ -34,3 +60,4 @@ already expect delays; to disappoint them in this way as
well would be unfortunate. Moreover, it would lessen the
possibility that they would want to try the Hurd again in the future.
+