1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The Hurd and Linux - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)</TITLE>
<LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:webmasters@www.gnu.org">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="hurd, linux">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#1F00FF" ALINK="#FF0000" VLINK="#9900DD">
<H1>The Hurd and Linux</H1>
[
<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical -->
<!-- PLEASE UPDATE THE LIST AT THE BOTTOM (OR TOP) OF THE PAGE TOO! -->
<A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.cn.html">Chinese(Simplified)</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.zh.html">Chinese(Traditional)</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.he.html">Hebrew</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.html">English</A>
]
<P>
by <A HREF="http://www.stallman.org/rms.html">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.
<HR>
[
<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical -->
<!-- PLEASE UPDATE THE LIST AT THE BOTTOM (OR TOP) OF THE PAGE TOO! -->
<A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.cn.html">Chinese(Simplified)</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.zh.html">Chinese(Traditional)</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.he.html">Hebrew</A>
| <A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd-and-linux.html">English</A>
]
<HR>
Return to <A HREF="/home.html">GNU's home page</A>.
<P>
FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to
<A HREF="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><EM>gnu@gnu.org</EM></A>.
Other <A HREF="/home.html#ContactInfo">ways to contact</A> the FSF.
<P>
Comments on these web pages to
<A HREF="mailto:webmasters@www.gnu.org"><EM>webmasters@www.gnu.org</EM></A>,
send other questions to
<A HREF="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><EM>gnu@gnu.org</EM></A>.
<P>
Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA
<P>
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.<P>
Updated:
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified: Thu Feb 13 01:12:02 CET 2003
<!-- hhmts end -->
<HR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
|
