Hurd

Hurd commonly refers to GNU Hurd, a free operating system project that aims to provide a complete Unix-like environment. GNU Hurd is developed as part of the GNU Project and is designed to run on top of a microkernel, originally the Mach kernel (in the GNU Mach variant). Instead of a single monolithic kernel, Hurd distributes kernel responsibility across multiple user-space servers that provide core services such as file systems, networking, and device access. Communication between servers and with the microkernel is mediated by the kernel, while the file system namespace can be extended using translators, which implement new types of file system behavior without modifying the kernel.

The project emphasizes modularity, security, and extensibility, but it has faced long development cycles and limited adoption. Debian GNU/Hurd is an existing port that has been available since the late 1990s, though it remains experimental and not widely used in production environments. Because of the patchwork nature of the system and the availability of other free operating systems, Hurd remains mostly a niche project and is primarily of interest to researchers, enthusiasts, and those studying alternative OS architectures.

Outside of computing, Hurd may be used as a surname or place name, and appears in various cultural references. The term is sometimes encountered in historical or biographical contexts related to individuals bearing the surname Hurd.