Different approach - harder to understand

[Nuno Carvalho <nemanuel@student.dei.uc.pt>]

Hi,

 I was reading Hurd.info and i would like to know if it's already
possible to have:

1.  Transparent FTP - for example:   cd /ftp/ftp.uu.net

2. Are those importants date correct ?

 9 June 1997       Version 0.2
 6 September 1996  Version 0.1
 6 August 1996     Version 0.0   (Initial release)

3.

"This mechanism is used quite obviously for mount.  A mount point would
have a translator associated with it.  When a user opens the mount
point, the translator, in this case, a program which understands the
disk format of the mounted filesystem, is executed, and returns a port
to the user."

 What's this port !? It's a number ?
 It's the same idea of port like: port 25 for mail, 22 for ssh, etc ...?

4. Modularity

 On Linux it's also possible to insert modules, rigth ?
 The big differences on HURD are : (!?)
    - doesn't need to be root user (uid=0)
    - modules are not inserted inside kernel
    - can be inserted as much modules has we want (there's no
limitation)
    - it's not called modules but program servers

5. Authentication Server

 Could you explain me, on a simple way, for what it's needed ?
 Authenticate users ? Kind of login server !?


Thanks

Best regards,
  Nuno Carvalho