Re: window manager.
...
> Ok.
> But.......why using hurd with mach kernel instead of linux?
> It's for your trial ok, but supposing hurd became stable, why use it
> instead of linux?
...
That's for anyone to find out:
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd
At the end everything comes to a personal choice and taste. I didn't
want to answer because I could start a discussion I don't want to
keep. There's people around who are better acknowledged about kernels
stuff than I am, and who could give you better pros and cons about
hurd and the academic war between monolithic kernels and uKernels, but
at the end I just wanted to point out a few things I like as user
(notice that the hurd is a unix like system anyways, so from a user
perspective there shouldn't be much difference any ways):
1.- It's based on uKernel, not monolitic kernel such as linux or
ms-win: "The Hurd is a collection of servers that run on the Mach
microkernel to implement file systems, network protocols, file access
control, and other features..."
2.- User space: "It is possible to develop and test new Hurd kernel
components without rebooting the machine (not even accidentally).
Running your own kernel components doesn't interfere with other users,
and so no special system privileges are required. The mechanism for
kernel extensions is secure by design: it is impossible to impose your
changes upon other users unless they authorize them or you are the
system administrator"
3.- It sounds to me that although might not perform faster than
monolithic kernel, it is lighter in the sense that only the required
servers are up at a time: "The Hurd is a collection of servers that
run on the Mach microkernel to implement file systems, network
protocols, file access control, and other features"
4.- The new uKernels hurd guys are thinking about are designed from
strong security basis (coyotos and secure L4), so although not
everything is perfect having something with design considerations for
security is attractive.
5.- I like GNU standards and compromise with GPL: "Anybody can use,
modify, and redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GPL)"
Again, I won't discuss about these few things or others that can be
discussed, I just pointed them out due to your question. At the end I
have to recognize I'm a GNU and GPL compliant software fan, so that's
probably the main reason I would try and support (as an user since my
knowledge is pretty little) GNU software and specially hurd, :)
You can do a little research, and you can come to the conclusion you
don't need it. Linux provides drivers and stuff that the hard doesn't
at this moment, and you for sure will fill more comfortable with linux
since it's probably the unix system we're used to. That's OK and
that's reality, I'm just stubborn, :)
If you're interested on trying, the main debian web page includes a
port link, and there you can find another one for non linux ports,
there you would find how to install debian-hurd and how to start
trying. There are discussions lists also, so anything else should be
discussed in those lists I believe instead of this one, to avoid
anyone complaining about a hurd discussion on a debian-user list, :)
Have fun,
-- Javier --
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