GNU/Hurd Continues Effort To Use NetBSD's Drivers For Better Hardware Support

[sinepgib]

Most Linux drivers are BSD or MIT licensed too



From https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/co...glue_code.html

Thanks!

[Mavman]

Can someone tell them there is a GPL microkernel named seL4 that would be just great to have on the Hurd?!?!

[coder]

Most Linux drivers are BSD or MIT licensed too

What's your source on the number of dual-licensed modules?

In case anyone didn't know, here's Linux' policy on driver licensing:

The code must be released to us under the GNU General Public License. If you wish the driver to be useful to other communities such as BSD you may release under multiple licenses. If you choose to release under licenses other than the GPL, you should include your rationale for your license choices in your cover letter.

Source: https://docs.kernel.org/process/submitting-drivers.html

[BaumKuchen]

I don't care what people work on their free time, I'm mostly just curious why they don't contribute to literally any other OS.

Because it's their free time and they wanna do something they enjoy? Nowadays you need to be productive even while relaxing. Crazy times.

[OneTimeShot]

If the outcome of this is that they start to develop more "sharable drivers" between different FOSS Operating Systems, that will be useful. My recommendation to Hurd would be to use KVM on Linux to abstract away the hardware while they build out their OS support, though.

To me, supporting millions of device drivers sounds less interesting/important than demonstrating a working desktop and web browser. Your tastes may vary...

Also, Amiga will eventually come back and replace everything. It is coming!

[Ironmask]

If the outcome of this is that they start to develop more "sharable drivers" between different FOSS Operating Systems, that will be useful. My recommendation to Hurd would be to use KVM on Linux to abstract away the hardware while they build out their OS support, though.

To me, supporting millions of device drivers sounds less interesting/important than demonstrating a working desktop and web browser. Your tastes may vary...

Also, Amiga will eventually come back and replace everything. It is coming!

Sadly this has been attempted many times (there's even an open source driver standard out there. Or two.) It's just not happening. Linux definitely isn't adopting standard driver frameworks, I don't think I've even seen any hobby OSes use a standard driver framework. Nobody really has any interest when you can just slap Linux on anything that needs drivers and any other OS is purely for VM-only academic interest.

Because it's their free time and they wanna do something they enjoy? Nowadays you need to be productive even while relaxing. Crazy times.

Relax, that's specifically why I added the "I don't care" disclaimer. Is nitpicking idle forum conversations what you do in your free time? Unlike my indifference to contributing to HURD, I lean more towards actively not doing that. Although, speaking of nitpicking, if this is your only contribution to this discussion, you should reevaluate your motivations for posting.

[novideo]

Can someone tell them there is a GPL microkernel named seL4 that would be just great to have on the Hurd?!?!

That would be great, but seL4 is GPLv2-only, not upgradable to v3. like linux, seL4 doesn't do copyright assignment, so relicensing to GPLv2-or-later would be difficult, though seL4 is a much smaller code base. Free Software Foundation could try asking.

[jbranso]

Can someone tell them there is a GPL microkernel named seL4 that would be just great to have on the Hurd?!?!

This actually was tried! Well L4 was tried: https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hi...crokernel.html

The Hurd Developers came to the conclusion that, "By now (that is, after 2006), there were some new L4 variants available, which added protected IPC paths and other features necessary for object-capability systems; so it might be possible to implement the Hurd on top of these. However, by that time the developers concluded that microkernel design and system design are interconnected in very intricate ways, and thus trying to use a third-party microkernel will always result in trouble."

[mangeek]

I've always wondered if it would be possible to abstract driver development in a way where the definition of how some hardware worked let multiple operating systems generate or build drivers from them. I know it's far-fetched, but it feels like so many alternative OS projects get stuck in a spot where they only have a handful of drivers, limiting uptake.

[BaumKuchen]

Relax, that's specifically why I added the "I don't care" disclaimer. Is nitpicking idle forum conversations what you do in your free time? Unlike my indifference to contributing to HURD, I lean more towards actively not doing that. Although, speaking of nitpicking, if this is your only contribution to this discussion, you should reevaluate your motivations for posting.

I am sorry but to me it seems like nobody is allowed to react to your comment just because you added 'I don't care'. not sure you realize that but you just went full defensive.