Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 Release Brings New Packages

While it wasn't part of the Debian 7.0 Wheezy release earlier this month, the GNU non-Linux folks have now put out Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This operating system pairs the Debian user-land with the GNU Hurd kernel.

Debian GNU/Hurd doesn't receive the level of attention or developer love as Debian GNU/Linux, or even compared to Debian GNU/kFreeBSD, but still the project is working out to a surprising level -- to the point that I've even been able to do benchmarks of Debian GNU/Hurd in the past.

The Debian GNU/Hurd 2013 release is based upon Debian Sid at the time of the Debian Wheezy release and is being made available in CD, DVD, and net-installer formats. Debian GNU/Hurd right now is only in a 32-bit spin, but there are more than 10,000 software packages available.

Sadly due to the Hurd kernel's less than stellar hardware/driver support, if wishing to run Debian GNU/Hurd on any modern hardware, it's mostly only useful when running in a QEMU virtual machine.

For more information on Debian GNU/Hurd 2013, read its release announcement at GNU.org. Benchmarks of Debian GNU/Hurd against GNU/Linux and GNU/kFreeBSD are forthcoming on Phoronix.