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I'm just a Hurd dabbler who likes the ideas behind the Hurd:
"With the Hurd, users can change anything in their system which doesn't affect other users."
And this is one definition of freedom in a community: "Do what you want as long as you don't restrict others from doing what they want."
In contrast, current systems (like Linux, MacOSX, Windows or others) require root/admin access to just install a new file system for reading out a nonstandard USB-stick (OK, who'd put reiserfs, zfs or similar on a USB stick? but still...).
Why do I have to be root or even to recompile my kernel in Linux to get a new filesystem to run? Why can't I just start a program which takes care of the filesystem for me, and only for me?
Well, with the Hurd I can do that, and it will be a transparent layer over my normal filesystem.
And the same is true for networking stuff and anything else. Hacking on the deep internals of the system is possible with the Hurd without all the pain of having to compile the kernel to check it - and even without the need of superuser access for doing to.
And sharing and exchanging programs deep inside the core is possible, too, since any Hurd user can just test them without fearing to compromise his/her machine.
Myself, I don't hack the kernel or anything (this shouldn't be a 'yet', I think, but I try not to be too sure about these kinds of things - life is weird :) ), but I'd sure like to be able to just get a new filesystem when I need it (and I don't dig rebooting my computer).
And I like my freedom - in my life as well as in technology.
See you in the Hurd!
- Arne Babenhauserheide ( http://draketo.de )
----- My Blog -----
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