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Comment by dllthomas | Hacker News Reader

I think it boils down to two differences in approach: 1) Linus was more radically open about including others in development of the kernel, and 2) Linus was more focused on "working" than "right" in kernel design. These happened to combine beautifully, as a working kernel meant people using the system and wanting to make it better.

Linus also benefited tremendously from having the GNU toolchain and userspace already available.

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There's also the more obvious difference in design. Hurd was supposed to be a micro-kernel whereas Linux was a much more straight forward monolithic kernel. One requires the inter-operation of lots of systems whereas one is just one big system that can just keep track of everything inside instead.

I'm pretty sure no one could build a functioning micro-kernel that'd be useful and able to compete at the time the Hurd project was still relevant. Then again, maybe I'm just making excuses for the FSF.

Well, that's more or less what I'd meant by 'focused on "working" rather than "right"' - GNU was trying to do what theoreticians suggested made the most sense; Linus was trying to do what had worked before. Both have pros and cons, but the latter is "safer" and certainly seems to have paid off here.

Linus also had the internet. Look at rms' signature - UUCP, ARPAnet. The internet, usenet and the patch program made collaboration much easier.

True, though while RMS did not have these things when he started, he presumably did before Linus started.

Ah, yes he did, except he was obstinate about using anything more fancy than email. As I remember it, though, there were a lot of ports of the GNU tools to all the unices, and the PC was still not as good as the Unix workstations. So where's the motivation to make Hurd, you know?

People weren't really clamoring for Hurd or a kernel for GNU, because they got an OS with their computer, and got the GNU tools and libc. The really major geeks would buy old, used workstations, which were built like tanks and were plenty fast for running single-user unix.

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