[HN Gopher] Quarter of the Hurd 2023-Q4
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       Quarter of the Hurd 2023-Q4
        
       Author : jlpcsl
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2024-01-10 20:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.gnu.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.gnu.org)
        
       | science4sail wrote:
       | GNU Hurd has been in development for more than 30 years, long
       | enough to see drastic changes in the computing industry (e.g. the
       | shift to web and mobile). At this point, I do wonder whether it
       | is more of a public art project than a viable technology, akin to
       | Dwarf Fortress.
       | 
       | https://xkcd.com/1508/
        
         | duskwuff wrote:
         | The project's also been running for so long that its hardware
         | requirements have slid from "yes, you can install and boot Hurd
         | on your computer" to "well, okay, maybe if you have an older
         | PC" to "we recommend running Hurd in a VM".
         | 
         | (To back this up: Hurd currently only supports the 32-bit x86
         | architecture, can only use a single CPU core, and is limited to
         | 1 GB or so of RAM. It also lacks support for USB, PCIe, or
         | anything dependent on them.)
        
           | asystole wrote:
           | >(To back this up: Hurd currently only supports the 32-bit
           | x86 architecture, can only use a single CPU core, and is
           | limited to 1 GB or so of RAM. It also lacks support for USB,
           | PCIe, or anything dependent on them.)
           | 
           | Wow. I was aware of Hurd and that it's perpetually not ready
           | for real-world use, but I didn't realise it was _that_ far
           | behind. Sounds like even hobby projects e.g. the likes of
           | SerenityOS have leapfrogged it.
        
         | graemep wrote:
         | Is a kernel (or, more precisely, I think a kernel replacement).
         | 
         | Kernels have not changed that much. Android devices use the
         | Linux kernel which is a similar age. Apple uses the XNU kernel
         | which is only a few years younger.
         | 
         | I think it is worth asking whether something that has failed to
         | gain traction or reach after so long is ever going to be
         | practical to use.
        
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