Re: discussion on fr.comp.os.linux.debats
On Sun, Nov 07, 1999 at 07:02:51PM +0100, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> there is a long thread "linux vs hurd" on the newsgroup
> fr.comp.os.linux.debats. As I do not speak french, could someone who does
> glance over it and see if any interesting points are raised. Also check for
> inaccuracies etc.
I just read most of it using deja.com (pruning the subthreads spanned
by those posts which were offtopic). Here is a summary.
Starting point is message 537926587 on deja.com: Encolpe Hugues
Ascylte DEGOUTE asks for the readers' opinions on the Hurd ``kernel''
and whether they think Linux 2.4 development should be abandoned in
favor of trying to obtain a stable version of the Hurd. He explains
that he would like to write an article in the bulletin of the ALDIL
association (http://www.aldil.linux.eu.org/). Message 537967819,
Hugues Marilleau points out that Hurd is not a kernel and makes fun of
the suggestion to stop developing Linux. In message 538205151, News
Claude explains that the Hurd is a collection of servers running over
Mach, and says that the an article in issue number 8 of LinuxMag
explains it all, and that this article is to be continued.
In message 539216982, Hugues Marilleau points out that a micro-kernel
(sic) can hardly be as fast as a monolithic kernel. In message
539292309, Laurent FAVART points out that the difference in speed
might not be all that important, and that microkernels have some other
advantages that monolithic kernels can never have, and he gives the
URL of the Mach home page. 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); he claims that ``RMS
himself did admit that they made a mistake in choosing to host Hurd on
Mach because it is too complex and not technically manageable''. In
541233403, Laurent FAVART points out that the failure of Mach may not
be the failure of microkernels altogether, and mentions the existence
of ``exokernels''.
In message 539477908, Guylhem Aznar compares Hurd with NT2000 and
calls them vaporware. This led to a subthread of various sarcasms.
In 540609706, Thierry Pinelli claims that Grub is unable to boot the
FreeBSD ELF kernels.
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.
> 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.
--
David A. Madore
(david.madore@ens.fr,
http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/ )
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