Hi, On Fri, Sep 14, 2007 at 07:54:17PM +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
> If the goal is just to be different for the sake of being different, > then we should use the Hurd. But how exactly will GNU be different > >from GNU/Linux? Or, how different enough will it be to warrent a > different kernel, and why could not Linux (or ...) be modified to do > these different things? You are talking like Linus Torvads now -- I seriously wonder why you got interested in the Hurd in the first place. Of course any specific feature can, in theory, be added to existing systems. That's Linus approach: Only adapt the system if there is a specific problem at hand that requires it. The difference is in the cost. With Linux (or other monolithic kernels), any change at system level requires kernel hacking, which is very involved. Moreover, for the changes to be realistically useful, they need to go upstream, which requires even more involvement, costing a lot of time and energy, and there is no guarantee that they it will even succeed in the end. The result is that much more often people settle for solutions based on existing kernel features, which tend to be much more complicated, fragile, limited, hard to setup and manage, and inefficient. With the Hurd, it's not only much easier to change functionality at system level; but also the change can be immediately used, on any machine running the Hurd -- without requiring consent from upstream or from the admin. Even normal application programs can come with modified Hurd servers, providing mechanisms better suited for the applicaton. If the changes prove generally useful, they will go upstream sonner or later -- but they don't need to. That's the real power of the Hurd design: Lowering barriers to system-level hacking, it allows for more individual setups, more innovation, and more elegant and powerful applications. This is something that can not be achieved by adding a few features to Linux or some other mainstream kernel. It requires a system designed for that from ground up. I'm not saying the current Hurd implementation is already perfect in this. Some things are still too hard to do, and I hope we can further optimize the design over time. But even as it is, the Hurd is much more powerful in this regard than any other system I know of, UNIX-compatible or not. -antrik-
