GNU variants

GNU variants is a term used by the Free Software Foundation to refer to operating systems which use GNU C Library, with application software and system libraries (in other words, the core userland) from GNU. According to the FSF these include Linux distributions and BSD distributions.

Debian GNU/Hurd was discussed for a release as technology preview with Debian 7.0 Wheezy, however these plans were discarded due to the immature state of the system. However the maintainers of Debian GNU/Hurd decided to publish an unofficial release on the release date of Debian 7.0. Debian GNU/Hurd is not considered yet to provide the performance and stability expected from a production system. Among the open issues are incomplete implementation of Java and X.org graphical user interfaces and limited hardware driver support. About two thirds of the Debian packages have been ported to Hurd.

Arch Hurd is a derivative work of Arch Linux, porting it to the GNU Hurd system with packages optimised for the Intel P6 architecture. Their goal is to provide an Arch-like user environment (BSD-style init scripts, Pacman package manager, rolling releases, and a simple set up) on the GNU Hurd which is stable enough for at least occasional use. Currently it provides a LiveCD for evaluation purposes and installations guides for LiveCD and conventional installation.

The term GNU/Linux is used by the FSF and its supporters to refer to an operating system where the Linux kernel is distributed with a GNU system software (userland and GNU C Library). Such distributions are the primary installed base of GNU packages and programs and also of Linux. The most notable official use of this term for a distribution is Debian GNU/Linux.

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