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authorArne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de>2011-10-10 02:07:04 +0200
committerArne Babenhauserheide <arne_bab@web.de>2011-10-10 02:07:04 +0200
commit6cac5be09d7a086c9f6dbcbef5f522935ea0790b (patch)
tree3eefca65420be3ee363e69b005c81283b0ca7316 /contributing
parenta877a03d3a5596b7a144820f15d8309a3584c8c4 (diff)
News: Publish 2011 Q2-PS
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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 Myths*.
-[[!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 *([lwn][], [reddit1][], [reddit2][],
-[h-online][], [slashdot][], [golem1][], [golem2][],
-[ih][innocenthacker], [netzwelt][], [tunnelbau][],
-[pro-linux][], [srini][], [schmehl][], …)*. We are happy to see that there is
-considerable interest in the Hurd; but we also saw some
-misunderstandings, false rumors, and outdated information floating
-around. Thus we will try to clarify the situation regarding some of
-the more common misunderstandings.
-
-[reddit1]: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/j2ztr/rms_mlayout_finally_shout_its_alive_at_gnuhurd_thanks/
-[lwn]: http://lwn.net/Articles/451699/
-[h-online]: http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Hurd-Progresses-Debian-GNU-Hurd-by-end-o
-[reddit2]: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/ipxxt/debian_now_has_concrete_plans_to_bring_gnu_hurd/
-[golem1]: http://www.golem.de/1107/84947.html
-[golem2]: http://www.golem.de/1108/85430.html
-[slashdot]: http://news.slasd.h.ot.org/story/11/07/14/2141229/watch-out-linux-gnu-hurd-coming
-[schmehl]: http://blog.schmehl.info/2011/07/15#hurd-not-default
-[innocenthacker]: http://www.innocenthacker.com/2011/07/debian-7-might-come-in-gnu-hurd-version.html
-[netzwelt]: http://www.netzwelt.de/news/87551-debian-7-0-wheezy-erste-plaene-hurd-statt-linux-kernel.html
-[tunnelbau]: http://blog.operation-tunnelbau.de/archives/66-Hurd-kommt-zusammen-mit-Duke-Nukem-Forever.-Fast..html
-[pro-linux]: http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/17261/gnu-hurd-will-offiziell-in-naechste-debian-version.html
-[srini]: http://srinicame.blogspot.com/2011/07/debian-gnuhurd-trial-installation.html
-
-
-
- * **Debian GNU Hurd works to become a port in Debian**:
- We plan to get into the next Debian release (Wheezy)
- as an additional port alongside GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD --
- but we don't know yet whether we will make it.
- There is still substantial work necessary to indeed become a release candidate.
- 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 nearby**: 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]], focusing on
- OpenJDK 7 --
- [partially working packages](http://jk.fr.eu.org/debian/experimental/)
- are already available.
- He also implemented GCJ/ECJ support,
- though this is not yet fully functional either.
- <!-- Is this correct? What is the actual status? -->
-
- * **GNU/Hurd supports X.Org, though a bit unstable**:
- X support has been present for ages
- (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)?);
- and X.Org also has been supported for a long time.
- (It's even mentioned in the
- [X.Org 7.2 release announcement](http://www.x.org/wiki/Other/Press/X11R72Released?action=show&redirect=PressReleases%2FX11R72Released).)
- It is true though that many modern drivers do not work anymore,
- as they require DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support now;
- so often only VESA is available.
- Also, X on the Hurd is [[somewhat_unstable|hurd/status]].
-
- * **The Hurd has weaker device support than Linux**:
- Most of the drivers we use today were imported from Linux 2.0.x.
- For network cards,
- Linux 2.6.29 drivers are available through [[DDE|hurd/dde]] --
- however, this is not fully integrated yet,
- so using these drivers needs manual setup for now ([[hurd/dde/guide]]).
- Support for other driver types is also possible with DDE,
- but it requires some not-trivial work for each additional class of drivers --
- so this can take some time to become available.
- (An additional benefit provided by DDE is that the device drivers run in userspace --
- unlike the old drivers we were using so far,
- which are part of the underlying Mach microkernel.)
-
- * **The Hurd has SMP, but needs support for new chipsets**:
- Both Mach (the microkernel used by the Hurd),
- and the Hurd servers themselves come with SMP support.
- However, Mach [[misses drivers for modern SMP chipsets|faq/smp]];
- and there are also some SMP-related bugs in the implementation --
- so further work is needed
- for the Hurd to take advantage of modern multicore processors.
-
- * **Installation can still be challenging**:
- Please [[take notice|http://xkcd.com/293/]] of the
- [README file](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage/YES_REALLY_README.txt) --
- just like with any software in development,
- there are some known pitfalls to avoid.
- (Or better yet, help to fix :-) )
- Alternatively, you can simply use the the
- [preinstalled image](http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz).
-
- * **GNU Hurd is not the same as GNU/Hurd**:
- The GNU project set out in 1983 to create a complete free operating system.
- When a distribution such as Debian combines their GNU-based userland
- with the GNU kernel (named `GNU Hurd`),
- the result is more or less a full GNU system.
- However, such third-party distributions are distinct
- from what an official complete GNU system release would be;
- and thus we often call them `GNU/Hurd`
- (similar to `GNU/Linux` or `GNU/kFreeBSD`) for clarity.
-
- * **Performance**:
- The [benchmarks conducted by Phoronix](http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=debian_gnu_hurd&num=1)
- attested very good performance to the Hurd.
- Keep in mind though that these benchmarks were almost completely CPU-bound;
- so they essentially just confirm that we don't do anything stupid
- regarding CPU initialisations. (Cache setup etc.)
- The results would be different for benchmarks
- that actually exercise the operating system functionality more.
- The fact that the tests were performed in a virtualised environment,
- might also have helped the results,
- for example by mitigating the effects of our unoptimized I/O paths --
- which are currently the major bottleneck in most situations.
- Nevertheless, these results are a hint
- that the extra IPC required in microkernel systems
- [doesn't necessarily hamper performance](http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.51.16)
- quite as much as often believed.
- We are glad to see such solid benchmarks
- help dispel some of the myths around the Hurd :-)
-
- * **Given the available manpower, the progress is very good**:
- Over the past decade,
- there were seldom more than half a dozen developers at any given time
- hacking on the Hurd, in their spare time --
- not hundreds of paid developers like Linux has.
- Considering this, the progress made is quite encouraging;
- with the system being [[pretty usable|hurd/status]] for many day-to-day tasks now.
- It is generally understood that the ambitious architecture of the Hurd
- required a lot of effort to get it working at all --
- but the recent progress shows that once the foundations are in place,
- the Hurd design indeed allows the developers to be very productive.
- To see the progress over the last few years, you can have a look at our
- [[news_archive|news]]. If you’ve grown interested, you can find
- various ways to contribute on the [[contributing]] page. We’d be happy
- to see you join in because every single hand makes a big difference in the Hurd!
-
-"""]]
-
-<!--
-
-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
-
--->