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[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 2008, 2009 Free Software
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[[!meta title="The Hurd and Linux"]]

[[!tag stable_URL]]

by <A HREF="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</A>.

<P>
People sometimes ask, ``Why did the FSF develop a new free kernel
instead of using Linux?''  It's a reasonable question.  The answer,
briefly, is that that is not the question we faced.

<P>
When we started developing the Hurd in 1990, the question facing us
was, ``How can we get a free kernel for the GNU system?''  There was
no free Unix-like kernel then, and we knew of no other plan to write
one.  The only way we could expect to have a free kernel was to write
it ourselves.  So we started.

<P>
We heard about Linux after its release.  At that time, the question
facing us was, ``Should we cancel the Hurd project and use Linux
instead?''

<P>
We heard that Linux was not at all portable (this may not be true
today, but that's what we heard then).  And we heard that Linux was
architecturally on a par with the Unix kernel; our work was leading to
something much more powerful.

<P>
Given the years of work we had already put into the Hurd, we decided
to finish it rather than throw them away.

<P>
If we did face the question that people ask---if Linux were already
available, and we were considering whether to start writing another
kernel---we would not do it.  Instead we would choose another project,
something to do a job that no existing free software can do.

<P>
But we did start the Hurd, back then, and now we have made it work.
We hope its superior architecture will make free operating systems
more powerful.