janneke · HackerTrans

2 jaar geledendiscuss

It can get even funnier when Chris Baines replaces the Nix daemon with a new implementation in Guile. Then, the NIH argument can be reused instead.

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

That's a great compliment as I think the core vision of GNU is that all software should be free (<https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.en.html>).

Although keeping software proprietary or writing proprietary software may have become somewhat unpopular in some niches (I'm not sure it's incredible unpopular seeing how many people and institutions still use and often advocate Apple, MicroSoft, use FaceBook, WhatsApp, whatsnot...), I'm not yet convinced that many people (say more than 1%) really believe that all software should be free and act on that?

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Have you tried reading the code? It's twice as large (107KLOC) as ext4 (45KLOC), where ext4 is viewed as a natural evolution of ext2 (7KLOC).

45KLOC of C code already sounds really scary to me, although yeah, journaling is really nice to have.

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

GNU is not an ecosystem (see <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html#Ecosys...>), it's a philosophy.

Yes, it's old. Yes, there's only little interest. Yes, there are _still_ many technical problems.

The interesting thing here is that technical problems can be solved, and will be solved given enough time. Heck, I've heard rumors that even Windows does not crash multiple times a day anymore.

Focussing and working on what is popular will most likely create a world that is less free every year. Some people rather work on something that seems right and promises a better, freer future. Even if it's not popular (right now), even if it has a high probability of failure.

Popularity is a very volatile property...

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Hurd does not support USB devices, officially, just yet, but these are surely exciting times. Unless maybe you're a capitalist ;-) <https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2023-06/msg00158...>

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

By reading the fine manual (<https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Virtualization-Serv...>) or blog post (<https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2020/childhurds-and-substitutes...>).

TL;DR; Add this

    (service hurd-vm-service-type
             (hurd-vm-configuration
              (disk-size (* 5000 (expt 2 20))) ;5G
              (memory-size 1024)))             ;1024MiB

GNU Shepherd system service description to your system configuration, and reconfigure; then just do something like

    sudo herd start childhurd
    ssh -p 10022 root@localhost

If you're not using Guix System, you can still download a prebuilt QEMU image from <https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/>:

    wget -O hurd-latest.img https://ci.guix.gnu.org/search/latest/image?query=spec:images+status:success+system:x86_64-linux+hurd-barebones.qcow2

and do something like:

    qemu-system-i386 -m 2048 --enable-kvm --hda hurd-latest.img

Enjoy!

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Rumpdisk on a GNU Guix childhurd: https://toot.aquilenet.fr/@civodul/110848429561223704

just one simple `guix system reconfigure' away!

Guix Hurd on my thinkpad x60: https://todon.nl/@janneke/110451493405777898

yeah, that's real (old, but not ancient) iron.

Enjoy!

janneke

3 jaar geledendiscuss

What I don't understand is why people are so willing to install and run opaque binary blobs, even is it's from/supporting free software-hostile Evil Corp. I've been running GNU Guix, which uses Linux-Libre--i.e., no blobs-- on my Dell XPS-13 and Lenovo x270. The only change I needed to make to buy my freedom was install an atheros wifi card (yeah, proprietary bios sucks, buy puri.sm).

And while Guix/Hurd isn't there yet as a daily driver (Debian/Hurd is much more polished), progress has been pretty exciting lately and it now runs on my IBM x60 -- https://todon.nl/@janneke/110451493405777898

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