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diff --git a/news/2010.texi b/news/2010.texi new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ca8a11b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/news/2010.texi @@ -0,0 +1,103 @@ +From Olaf Buddenhagen, Arne Babenhauserheide, Thomas Schwinge: Yeah, +that's quite right: this project is still alive! + +According to our mission statement, the goal is creating @emph{a +general-purpose kernel suitable for the GNU operating system, which is +viable for everyday use, and gives users and programs as much control +over their computing environment as possible}. It has a unique +multi-server microkernel-based architecture---bringing advanced +operating system research to the mainstream. More concretely, it's a +collection of user-space server processes that run on the GNU Mach +microkernel. + +The Hurd doesn't fully deliver on the @emph{everyday usability} goal +yet, but it is seeing continuous improvement---and 2010 has been no +exception. Let's take a look at the progress throughout the year. + +@itemize @bullet +@item +Apart from having done a lot of other work, Samuel Thibault, our Jack +of all trades, merged his development branch that added Xen domU +support to GNU Mach, which makes it possible to run a GNU/Hurd system +as a Xen guest. Development of this started in 2007, and since then +it has been heavily tested by using it for the Debian GNU/Hurd build +servers, most of our public GNU/Hurd systems, +@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/public_hurd_boxen.html}, and the +Hurd project's wiki web server. + +@item +We had Zheng Da work on a new hardware device driver framework, which +is based on the Dresden L4 (Fiasco) group's DDE project, and allows +running modern Linux kernel drivers as user-space server processes. +Many network cards already work perfectly with this new framework. +(It has not yet been integrated into the mainstream Hurd code base, so +it needs to be compiled and set up by hand.) Other driver classes, +such as hard disk controllers, will require further work. + +@item +As in the previous years, we again participated in the Google Summer +of Code 2010. Olaf Buddenhagen is our main guy for organizing this. + +J@'er@'emie Koenig ported the modern Debian Installer to Debian +GNU/Hurd. Installation images using the new installer are replacing +the previous CD images, which were using an installer based on the old +Debian boot floppies (and running under the Linux kernel)---Philip +Charles has been maintaining these single-handedly for almost ten +years! The new installer images are available from +@url{http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/installer/cdimage/}. + +Emilio Pozuelo Monfort was investigating specific compatibility +problems exposed by the extensive test suites coming with some +software packages. Emilio's analysis uncovered a number of +programming errors in the Hurd code, and he fixed several of them. As +these typically affected other programs too, this improved stability +and compatibility in general. + +@item +J@'er@'emie Koenig created a new implementation of a @command{procfs} +translator, which is considerably more robust and efficient than the +previous one. Tools such as @command{top} can now be used without +problems. + +Some other translators (@command{gopherfs}, @command{netio}, +@command{tarfs}) which have been created by external contributors in +the past have been fixed up by Manuel Menal, and packaged in Debian. +Thus, some of the results of Hurd's extensible architecture are now +easier to access, and these updated translators can serve as examples +for other developers to implement their own ideas. + +@item +In addition to various general stability, compatibility, and +portability fixes, several people (Samuel Thibault, Pino Toscano, +Emilio Pozuelo Monfort, and others) have been working on fixing issues +with specific Debian packages. So far, about 68% of all Debian +packages are also available for Debian GNU/Hurd. + +@item +Michael Walker started the Arch Hurd distribution, and together with +other enthusiastic Arch developers (Allan McRae, Matthias Lanzinger, +Alexander Preisinger, Stephen Gilles, Diego Nieto Cid) they got it +working in an amazingly short amount of time, both as an installable +system, and a live CD. So now there is a choice between two +well-featured distributions for the Hurd. These new people of course +also help forwarding Hurd development in general---Diego in particular +contributed various patches to the Hurd console and other components. + +@item +Carl Fredrik Hammar finished and presented his thesis, ``Generalizing +mobility for the Hurd'', +@url{http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2010-01/msg00078.html}, +and passed with distinction. +@end itemize + +This is a very short digest of what happened in the last year. You +can read our regular ``Month of the Hurd'' at +@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/news.html}, or by subscribing to +our RSS feed at @url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/index.rss}. + +If you are interested, for example, in doing a university project on a +multi-server microkernel-based operating system, or if you are +interested in contributing to Hurd development in general, please see +@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/contributing.html}. Or just +talk to us at @email{bug-hurd@@gnu.org} or the @code{#hurd} IRC +channel on freenode. |