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
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
|
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/strict.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>The GNU Hurd - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)</TITLE>
<LINK REV="made" HREF="mailto:web-hurd@gnu.org">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="hurd">
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#1F00FF" ALINK="#FF0000" VLINK="#9900DD">
<TABLE width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="15">
<TR>
<TD COLSPAN="2">
<IMG SRC="/graphics/hurd_sm_mf.jpg" ALT=" [image of the Hurd logo] ">
[
<A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd.html">English</A>
]
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#eeeeee">
<A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd.html"><STRONG>The GNU Hurd</STRONG></A><BR>
<BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/docs.html">Documentation</A><BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/install.html">Installation</A><BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/help.html">Getting Help</A><BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/download.html">Download</A><BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/devel.html">Development</A><BR>
<A HREF="/software/hurd/history.html">History</A>
</TD>
<TD ALIGN="LEFT" VALIGN="TOP">
<HR>
<P>
<H3><A NAME="contents">Table of Contents</A></H3>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#introduction" NAME="TOCintroduction">Introduction to the Hurd</A>
<LI><A HREF="#advantages" NAME="TOCadvantages">Advantages of the Hurd</A>
<LI><A HREF="#name" NAME="TOCname">What the Hurd means</A>
<LI><A HREF="#status" NAME="TOCstatus">Status of the project</A>
</UL>
<P>
<HR>
<H3><A HREF="#TOCintroduction" NAME="introduction">Introduction to the Hurd</A></H3>
<P>
The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel.
The Hurd is a collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel
to implement file systems, network protocols, file access control, and
other features that are implemented by the Unix kernel or similar
kernels (such as Linux).
<P>
Currently, the Hurd runs on IA32 machines. The Hurd should, and
probably will, be ported to other hardware architectures or other
microkernels in the future.
<H3><A HREF="#TOCadvantages" NAME="advantages">Advantages of the Hurd</A></H3>
The Hurd is not the most advanced kernel known to the planet (yet),
but it does have a number of enticing features:
<DL>
<DT><STRONG>it's free software</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
Anybody can use, modify, and redistribute it under the terms of the
<A HREF="/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License (GPL)</A>.</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it's compatible</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
The Hurd provides a familiar programming and user environment. For
all intents and purposes, the Hurd is a modern Unix-like kernel. The
Hurd uses the <A HREF="/software/libc/libc.html">GNU C Library</A>,
whose development closely tracks standards such as ANSI/ISO, BSD,
POSIX, Single Unix, SVID, and X/Open.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it's built to survive</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
Unlike other popular kernel software, the Hurd has an object-oriented
structure that allows it to evolve without compromising its design.
This structure will help the Hurd undergo major redesign and
modifications without having to be entirely rewritten.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it's scalable</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
The Hurd implementation is aggressively multithreaded so that it runs
efficiently on both single processors and symmetric multiprocessors.
The Hurd interfaces are designed to allow transparent network clusters
(<I>collectives</I>), although this feature has not yet been
implemented.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it's extensible</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
The Hurd is an attractive platform for learning how to become a kernel
hacker or for implementing new ideas in kernel technology. Every part
of the system is designed to be modified and extended.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it's stable</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
It is possible to develop and test new Hurd kernel components without
rebooting the machine (not even accidentally). Running your own
kernel components doesn't interfere with other users, and so no
special system privileges are required. The mechanism for kernel
extensions is secure by design: it is impossible to impose your
changes upon other users unless they authorize them or you are the
system administrator.
</DD>
<DT><STRONG>it exists</STRONG></DT>
<DD>
The Hurd is real software that works Right Now. It is not a research
project or a proposal. You don't have to wait at all before you can
start using and developing it.
</DD>
</DL>
<H3><A HREF="#TOCname" NAME="name">What the Hurd means</A></H3>
According to Thomas Bushnell, BSG, the primary architect of the Hurd:
<BLOCKQUOTE>
`Hurd' stands for `Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons'. And, then, `Hird'
stands for `Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth'. We have here, to
my knowledge, the first software to be named by a pair of mutually
recursive acronyms.
</BLOCKQUOTE>
<H3><A HREF="#TOCstatus" NAME="status">Status of the project</A></H3>
<P>
The Hurd, together with the GNU Mach microkernel, the GNU C Library
and the other GNU programs, provides a rather complete and usable
operating system today. It is not ready for production use, as there
are still many bugs and missing features. However, it should be a
good base for further development and non-critical application usage.
<P>
GNU/Hurd is completely self-contained (you can compile all parts of
the Hurd system from GNU/Hurd itself). You can run several GNU/Hurd
systems in parallel, and debug even critical servers in another GNU/Hurd
with gdb. You can run the X window system, applications that use it,
and advanced server applications like the Apache webserver.
<P>
On the negative side, the support for character devices (like sound
cards) and other hardware is mostly missing. Although the POSIX
interface is provided, some additional interfaces like POSIX threads,
shared memories or semaphores are still under development.
<P>
All this applies to the current development version, and not to the
last release (0.2). We encourage everybody who is interested to try
out the latest development version, and send feedback to the Hurd
developers.
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
<HR>
[
<A HREF="/software/hurd/hurd.html">English</A>
]
<HR>
<P>
Return to <A HREF="/home.html">GNU's home page</A>.
<P>
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to
<A HREF="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><EM>gnu@gnu.org</EM></A>.
There are also <A HREF="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to
contact</A> the FSF.
<P>
Please send comments on these web pages to
<A HREF="mailto:web-hurd@gnu.org"><EM>web-hurd@gnu.org</EM></A>,
send other questions to
<A HREF="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><EM>gnu@gnu.org</EM></A>.
<P>
Copyright (C) 2001 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:
<!-- timestamp start -->
$Date$ $Author$
<!-- timestamp end -->
<HR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
|
