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# 36 Years in Making, GNU's Very Own Kernel Project Hurd is Anything But Dead
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/gnu-hurd-progress-report/
- Published: 2026-02-03T13:21:37.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-03T13:21:37.000Z
- Description: Better late than never!
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: News

At this point, you might think that [GNU Hurd](https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/?ref=itsfoss.com) is a mythical beast lost to time, but fret not, it's still around. Speaking at [FOSDEM 2026](https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/7FZXHF-updates%5Fon%5Fgnuhurd%5Fprogress%5Frump%5Fdrivers%5F64bit%5Fsmp%5Fsoftware%5Fbootstrapping/?ref=itsfoss.com), Samuel Thibault has provided a much-needed progress update.

To the uninitiated, GNU Hurd is a replacement for the [Unix kernel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix?ref=itsfoss.com), which has been in development since 1990\. Unlike Linux's approach, where there's a monolithic kernel, Hurd breaks down components into small, independent servers.

This way, **any changes or major redesigns can be carried out without having to rewrite the whole thing**. You can draw a parallel with how tricky [Linux's rustification](https://itsfoss.com/news/first-linux-kernel-rust-cve/) has been.

## Still Going Strong

It is now said to be rather stable, with [Debian](https://www.debian.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) builds being able to compile about 80% of the archive, and GNOME, KDE, and Xfce all working on it. Guix has also shipped [a Hurd release](https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/?ref=itsfoss.com#:~:text=GNU%20Guix%20System%20on%20GNU%20Hurd), with some work coming to [Arch Linux](https://archlinux.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) and [Alpine Linux](https://www.alpinelinux.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) as well.

On the software side, ***gcc***, ***glibc***, ***LLVM***, and ***Rust*** have all added Hurd support upstream, with **64-bit support now working** and a Debian amd64 version bootstrapped.

Similarly, on the hardware side, it supports **SMP (*multi-core*)**, with SATA handled by an AHCI driver and USB drives and CDs supported through a [userland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User%5Fspace%5Fand%5Fkernel%5Fspace?ref=itsfoss.com#:~:text=The%20term%20user,software%2C%20etc.) translator.

Network drivers have also been ported to userland, replacing the old Linux 2.6.32-based layer. ACPI and PCI access both run in userland too, with PAE support on 32-bit added for memory-hungry builds.

There's KVM/Xen support too, but the performance for it is said to be "*not satisfactory,*" and initial ARM64 support is in the works.

The **included console is a modular one**, with a server running virtual ttys and gettys and a client handling keyboard, mouse, and VGA. The VGA driver allows it to print kanji and emojis in text mode, with up to 512 dynamic glyphs and double-width character support.

Samuel also shared that:

> The x86\_64 port is essentially complete, which mostly required fixing the MIG RPC layer, and telling various software that it exists. To bootstrap the Debian GNU/Hurd x86\_64 distribution, many of the crossbuilding, rebootstrapping and build profiles tools were used to make it relatively smooth.   
>  
> Additionally, the Guix/Hurd distribution is also on its way, as well as an Alpine/Hurd distribution. And more to discover during the talk!

Via: [Phoronix](https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNU-Hurd-In-2026?ref=itsfoss.com)