Re: discussion on fr.comp.os.linux.debats
Hi,
On Sun, Nov 07, 1999 at 09:53:20PM +0100, David Madore wrote:
> I just read most of it using deja.com (pruning the subthreads spanned
> by those posts which were offtopic). Here is a summary.
Thank you very much. It shows at least that we need do to a lot more PR
work, as there are various misconceptions floating around.
I think it is important to look at the opinions on the Hurd, even if they
are not technical. They show us were we did not made ourselve clear enough.
Let me respond to some points, even if I don't reach the people who said
that this way. I can not conveniently write news messages, I think.
> In message 539216982, Hugues Marilleau points out that a micro-kernel
> (sic) can hardly be as fast as a monolithic kernel.
This has to be determined. Much research has been done on this topic,
especiaaly how to speed up RPC's, and there is opinion among people who
design distributed or microkernel systems that the performance doesn't
need to be worse.
> In message 541216245, Jerome Kalifa claims
> that Mach has been a failure all the way (NeXtStep, MkLinux being
> replaced by classical Linux and, soon, MacOS);
This doesn't take into account that those are single server OS's, as opposed
to the multi server Hurd system.
> Essentially nothing very precise was ever said. But I did not see any
> blatant inaccuracies either. A pointer to the Hurd page was given,
> but that is about the extent of the technical part of the discussion.
Okay, the question is then how we can improve the lack of information.
If some people have some time and expertise on microkernel
programming/design, it would be great if some stuff about common
misunderstanding could be written. Start out with a draft, and post it for
comments, then we should get something usable pretty quick.
For example, the simple question "why should I use Hurd?" is not answered at
all by the web page. We are short on general overviews and explanations of
what is currently implemented and what is achievable. Unfortunately, the
concepts of the Hurd are quite complicated, and describing them in easy
terms without getting too technical is difficult.
> > There was also a Hurd article in the French Linux magazine. Can someone find
> > out who was interviewed (they wanted an interview with me, but I never got an
> > answer to my reply, so I think they found someone more interesting :) and
> > summarize the article for us?
>
> I'll try to see if I can find this.
This would be very kind. Again, thanks for your help,
Marcus
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