GNU Guix Wants To Replace The Linux-Libre Kernel With The Hurd Micro-Kernel

Seemingly at first thinking it was just an April Fools' Day joke, but it turns out the GNU Guix developers responsible for their package manager and operating system are actually working to replace their Linux (GNU Linux-libre to be exact) kernel with GNU Hurd.

The GNU Guix project announced today they are planning to deprecate support for the Linux kernel. Their Guix 1.1 target would be the last supporting Linux-libre and by Guix 2.0 they would potentially be removing their Linux kernel entirely but still allowing "foreign" distributions to support it on a best-effort basis.

They want GNU Hurd to "increase security and freedom for their users." Though GNU Hurd still doesn't run on much of today's hardware. Hurd still lacks in the area of 64-bit and SMP capabilities not to mention all of the other newer hardware features and device support. Hurd can basically be spun up for a basic virtual machine but isn't too practical beyond that but it fits the GNU principles on freedom.

GNU Guix defaulting to Hurd would be one of the few open-source projects doing so, with the unofficial Debian GNU/Hurd being another.

Thinking it may have just been an elaborate April Fools' Day joke, but there is actually the Guix's wip-hurd and wip-hurd-vm branches where this work is happening to promote Hurd within the Guix ecosystem.