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authorArne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de>2011-10-04 17:22:17 +0200
committerArne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de>2011-10-04 17:22:17 +0200
commitd0bdae24b59dde1783f928992d414f608a42b266 (patch)
tree052e5254f6207fa384bdddd64b5580d0718b83c4 /contributing/web_pages/news
parentcf1d668a185777e48faa180f201f58f93dcf3950 (diff)
parent67f614c029ba729a9451e87c4885c198fc10251b (diff)
manual merge
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+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2011 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
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+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]]."]]"""]]
+
+<!--
+[[!meta date="2011-07-19 23:42 UTC"]]
+-->
+
+A quarter of the Hurd, Q2 of 2011, PS: *GNU Hurd Truths and Rumors*.
+[[!if test="included()" then="""[[!toggle id=full_news
+text="Details."]][[!toggleable id=full_news text="[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]"""
+else="
+[[!paste id=full_news]]"]]
+
+[[!cut id="full_news" text="""
+
+After our last *[[Quarter of the Hurd|news/2011-q2]]* has been picked up by a bunch
+of news sites, blogs, and so on, discussions have been running all over the
+net. While we are happy to see that there obviously is quite some interest in
+the GNU Hurd, we also saw some rumors and outdated information flowing around.
+In the following, we try to clear the situation up a bit.
+
+ * *Debian wants to replace the Linux kernel with the GNU Hurd*. {X}
+ **Wrong**. We plan to get into Wheezy as an additional port besides
+ GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD -- but we don't know whether we will make it.
+ It mostly depends on a lot of work which is still to be done. If you
+ want to help, please see our [[contributing]] page and the *to do* list
+ maintained on <http://wiki.debian.org/Debian_GNU/Hurd>.
+ We’d be happy to have you on board!
+
+ * *Java support for GNU/Hurd is in the works*. (./) **True**. Jérémie
+ Koenig is working on making a versatile Java programming environment
+ available on the GNU/Hurd as part of his [[Google Summer of Code
+ project|user/jkoenig/java]], focussing on OpenJDK 7. Also, we already do
+ have support by the GCJ/ECJ platform, but this is not fully functional, and
+ Jérémie is improving that, too.
+
+ * *GNU/Hurd has no support for X.org*. {X} **Wrong**. X.Org *does*
+ work, and has for a long time. (Anyone remember
+ [1998's XFree86](http://cvsweb.xfree86.org/cvsweb/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support/hurd/hurd_video.c?rev=1.1&content-type=text/vnd.viewcvs-markup),
+ by chance?) It is correct however that not a lot of advanced
+ drivers work, due to missing DRM (Direct Rendering Manager)
+ support and that it is [[somewhat_unstable|hurd/status]].
+
+[[tschwinge]] thinks that the following one is a bit questionable...
+
+ * *The GNU/Hurd only runs on legacy hardware*. {X} **Wrong**. The GNU/Hurd
+ is only tested on a few platforms, but it likely runs on modern processors.
+ If you want to see if it works for you, just test a
+ [[hurd/running/Live_CD]].
+
+ * *Hurd only supports legacy devices:* ½ Partly True: Currently most
+ drivers are from Linux 2.0. For network cards, Linux 2.6+ drivers
+ are available through DDE, though (needs manual setup for
+ now). With a good amount of work, DDE also allows porting other
+ classes of drivers to allow using the drivers from recent Linux
+ releases — and push them into userspace.
+
+ * *The Hurd has no SMP:* <u>✔ **True**</u>: The **Hurd servers
+ support SMP** and **GNU Mach has SMP support**. But the latter
+ [[does_not_yet_have_drivers_for_nowadays_chipsets|faq/smp]], so
+ the Hurd currently can’t take advantage of multiple cores.
+
+ * *Developing a microkernel must be harder than developing a
+ monolithic kernel, because the Hurd took so long:* ✘ **Wrong**:
+ For the last decade, the Hurd had on average 5 hobby
+ developers. That these developers managed to get the Hurd into a
+ state where it actually gets not too far from the Linux kernel in
+ performance — which has about 1000 developers, many of them full
+ time — shows the efficiency of the Hurd’s design.
+
+ * *Installation does not work:* ½ Partly True: Did you read the
+ [[README|http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage/YES_REALLY_README.txt]]
+ ([[file|http://xkcd.com/293/]])? Just like any beta piece of
+ software, there are known pitfalls to avoid (or better, help to
+ fix). You can also simply use the the
+ [[preinstalled image|http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz]].
+
+ * *The system is called GNU/GNU Hurd:* ✘ **Wrong**: The GNU userland
+ (glibc, coreutils, …) and the GNU Hurd together form the GNU
+ system. To avoid being mistaken for GNU/Linux, we normally use
+ the name GNU/Hurd or GNU Hurd. The *correct* name is simply GNU.
+
+**Test results**
+
+The results of the test from Phoronix were quite good. We expected
+that the microkernel design of the Hurd would have a far more severe
+performance hit.
+
+Some possible explanations include:
+
+* The tests were mostly CPU bound, so the kernel was not that
+ relevant.
+* IPCs [are no more such a problem on recent hardware][ipc].
+
+Note: The emulation layer should rather make the context switches
+ worse, so it’s likely not a reason for the unexpectedly good
+ performance.
+
+[ipc]: http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.51.16
+
+"""]]
+
+<!--
+
+slashdot
+
+and phoronix did some [performance tests of the Hurd][phorperf],
+[phorperf]: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=debian_gnu_hurd&num=1
+
+---
+
+IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2011-08-24:
+
+ < ArneBab> hurd related: I now think you were right, antrik: the hurd
+ rumors don’t belong into the news (tschwinge)
+ < antrik> ArneBab: you mean the postscriptum as a whole, or just the wild
+ rumours part?...
+ < ArneBab> the whole PS
+ < ArneBab> it should rather go into a blog post
+ < ArneBab> (in the wiki)
+ < antrik> hm... I don't think I agree
+ < ArneBab> why?
+ < antrik> apparently there is a number of people following the news now,
+ and apparently many of them misread some statements... it makes sense to
+ use the same channel for clarifying them I'd say
+ < ArneBab> hm, ok
+ < ArneBab> how would you select the part to include?
+ < antrik> roughly speaking, I'd include everything that actually relates to
+ the previous news that were misunderstood
+ < antrik> and drop all unrelated speculations that popped up
+ < antrik> BTW, it *might* be useful perhaps to actually update the original
+ news posting with the clarifications?...
+ < ArneBab> we can’t do that without breaking some peoples RSS feeds
+ < antrik> note that there is another aspect to consider: the fact that
+ several news sites picked it up is indeed genuine news by itself...
+ < ArneBab> that’s right, yes
+ < antrik> will it really break anything? from what I heard so far it just
+ means they will see the posting as new again, which would actually make
+ sense in this case...
+ < antrik> but I don't insist if you think it's too risky :-)
+ < antrik> just an idea
+
+-->
diff --git a/contributing/web_pages/news/moth_next.mdwn b/contributing/web_pages/news/moth_next.mdwn
index dec41583..3faa6e60 100644
--- a/contributing/web_pages/news/moth_next.mdwn
+++ b/contributing/web_pages/news/moth_next.mdwn
@@ -67,4 +67,11 @@ And …
* <http://blog.schmehl.info/Debian/hurd-not-default>
+ * LWN
+
+ * Bits from the Debian GNU/Hurd porters,
+ id:"20110721172827.GF4057@const.famille.thibault.fr"
+
+ * [[2011-q2-ps]]
+
"""]]