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Hurd has failed after many years to produce a kernel even nearly as complete as Linux.

That's because there are only a couple of guys working on it. Linux has had hundreds of contributors over the years, many of which work for large tech companies like Intel and get paid by their company for their contributions.

I would be fascinated if Hurd could get the same sort of developer momentum to be comparable to Linux. A completely new (as in 1.0 released) and usable FOSS Unix-alike would be quite welcome amongst Linux and the BSD's I think.

GNU's kernel efforts had an entire team debating, discussing, prototyping, and eventually working on Hurd before Linux even existed.

Linux was initially written and released by one guy.

Linux obviously gained a wider team while Hurd languished, but it's still interesting that GNU's kernel efforts started with far more initial human resources and were still quickly overshadowed by Linux.

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