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diff --git a/news/2011-q2-ps.mdwn b/news/2011-q2-ps.mdwn deleted file mode 100644 index 28d2bbb0..00000000 --- a/news/2011-q2-ps.mdwn +++ /dev/null @@ -1,163 +0,0 @@ -[[!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="2011-10-13 10:00 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, Q2 of 2011|2011-q2]]* has been picked -up by a bunch of news sites, blogs, and so on, discussions and speculations -have been running all over the net: - - * {{$news/2011-q2#lwn}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#phoronix-1}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#phoronix-2}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#golem}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#h-online}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#innocenthacker}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#netzwelt}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#operation-tunnelbau}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#osnews}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#pro-linux}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#reddit-1}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#reddit-2}}; - * {{$news/2011-q2#slashdot}}; - * and a lot more. - -We are happy to see that there is -considerable interest in the Hurd; but we also saw some -misunderstandings, false rumors, and outdated information floating -around. Thus we will try to clarify the situation regarding some of -the more common misunderstandings. - - * **Debian GNU/Hurd strives to become an official Debian port**: - The Debian GNU/Hurd team is working hard to prepare a technology - preview/release candidate for the next Debian release (Wheezy), to - eventually become an official port alongside GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD -- - but we don't know yet whether we will make it. This is also the - understanding of (for example) Debian's spokesperson - {{$news/2011-q2#schmehl}}. - 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 - GNU/Hurd as part of his - [[Google Summer of Code project|user/jkoenig/java]], focusing on - OpenJDK 7. [Experimental - packages](http://jk.fr.eu.org/debian/experimental/) - are already available. - Also, Java support in GCC (via GCJ/ECJ) has been available before, - which Jérémie also improved. - - * **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 (for example, GNU Hurd - support is explicitly 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 graphic card drivers don't work anymore, - as they require DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support, - so often only VESA is available. - Also, X on the Hurd is [[somewhat_unstable|hurd/status]]. - - * **GNU Hurd has weaker device driver support than the Linux kernel**: - Most of the drivers we use today were imported from Linux 2.0 series. - 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 in principle, - 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 as - regular user-space processes -- - unlike the old drivers we were using so far, - which are part of the underlying GNU Mach microkernel.) - - * **The Hurd has SMP, but needs support for new chipsets**: - Both GNU Mach (the microkernel used by the Hurd), - and the Hurd servers themselves come with SMP support. - However, GNU 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 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) - in QEMU/KVM/VirtualBox/... - - * **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*|hurd/what_is_the_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* for clarity, similar to *GNU/Linux* - or *GNU/kFreeBSD*. - - * **Performance**: - The benchmarks conducted by Phoronix (as reported by - {{$2011-q2#phoronix-3}}) (Phoronix/Michael: thanks for doing these!) - attest 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 initialization (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 virtualized 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|ipc#performance]] - quite as much as often believed. - We are glad to see such solid benchmarks - help dispel some of the myths around the Hurd and other microkernel-based - systems. - - * **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|faq/how_many_developers]] - hacking on the Hurd, in their spare time -- - not hundreds of paid developers like Linux has nowadays. - 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 - requires 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're interested, you can find various ways of - [[contributing]]. We'd be happy to see you join in, because for the Hurd, - every single helping hand makes a big difference! - -"""]] |