Re: GNU/Hurd newbie
On Fri, Oct 01, 1999 at 10:11:31AM -0400, Christopher Barry wrote:
> Hello all,
> I've been reading about The Hurd for over a year or so, but was under the
> belief that it was not really runnable.
Well, it boots and you can run stuff (that's what Alan Cox was admitting
when I challenged him to define what usability means, and where the Hurd did
fail).
> I see that XFree86 says the latest version is GNU/Hurd compatable.
But the Hurd is not XFree compatible :)
We are working on it, but please bear with our slowness. It is trickier than
it seems. All prior successes to get it running were hacks, and we want to
do it proper now.
> Much has happened!
This is true indeed!
> Can basically most of the apps for linux be run on the Hurd?
Let's say most of the apps that run on Linux either work without chnages or
can be made to run with a bit of hacking (and bug fixing! Some bugs in the
apps only show up on other systems, like the Hurd).
> Is the Hurd truly usable?
What does "truly usable" mean to you? If emacs runs, is this okay? If it is
POSIX compatible, does this suffice? If it lacks performance, graphic
programs and a lot of other stuff because we had not the time to port it
yet, is it still usable to you?
It is definitely usable to hack it and compile stuff and develop it and so
on. It is defintiely usable if you prefer console over X (as I do). Exim, mutt,
lynx, etc are available and run.
> Philosophically, I'm much more inclined to support the Hurd than Linux.
Then join in and help us to improve it where it lacks!
Thanks,
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org Check Key server
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org for public PGP Key
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de PGP Key ID 36E7CD09
http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Marcus.Brinkmann/
Reply to: