OfB.biz: Open for Business – What’s Gnu: RMS on UnitedLinux, Free Software
RMS: We developed the GNU operating system, a compatible replacement for Unix, so users could be free to share and change it. Unix was not free software; it was available under restrictive licenses. It was not unusual for it to be licensed per computer, or even according to the number of users who could log in.
In 1991, the last gap in GNU was the kernel; Linus Torvalds then wrote a free kernel, Linux, and released it under the GNU General Public License. Adding Linux to GNU produced a free operating system, the GNU/Linux system. (Many users believe that the whole system is Linux, and the companies that package the system spread this mistake.)
The fact of the matter is, HURD was the kernel that RMS had in mind to fit for the GNU distribution. But it was never ready. Linux filled the gap but not by design as RMS implies: no one imagined Linux would become what it has. As for HURD, you can see the latest status: read this and tell me if you would call this a “UNIX-compatiible operating system:”
The Hurd, together with the GNU Mach microkernel, the GNU C Library and the other GNU programs, provides a rather complete and usable operating system today. It is not ready for production use, as there are still many bugs and missing features. However, it should be a good base for further development and non-critical application usage.GNU/Hurd is completely self-contained (you can compile all parts of the Hurd system from GNU/Hurd itself). You can run several GNU/Hurd systems in parallel, and debug even critical servers in another GNU/Hurd with gdb. You can run the X window system, applications that use it, and advanced server applications like the Apache webserver.
On the negative side, the support for character devices (like sound cards) and other hardware is mostly missing. Although the POSIX interface is provided, some additional interfaces like POSIX threads, shared memories or semaphores are still under development.
This all sounds suspiciously like a desperate claim to appear to be relevant, in spite of evidence to the contrary.
If you wanted to work on a kernel, you could choose any of the BSD flavors, Linux, or Darwin (also a Mach microkernel). Any of these are more fully baked than HURD appears to be.