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diff --git a/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html b/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8eccd62c --- /dev/null +++ b/hurd/documentation/hurd-and-linux.html @@ -0,0 +1,47 @@ +[[meta copyright="Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 2008 Free Software Foundation, +Inc."]] + +[[meta license="Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is +permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved."]] + +[[meta title="The Hurd and Linux"]] + +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. |