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⇱ Gentoo Releases Experimental Images Using GNU/Hurd - Phoronix


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Gentoo Releases Experimental Images Using GNU/Hurd

Written by Michael Larabel in Operating Systems on 3 April 2026 at 10:37 AM EDT. 15 Comments
Following an April Fools' Day tease of Gentoo claiming they were going to switch to GNU Hurd as their primary kernel moving forward, they have now acknowledged the joke but in fact also announcing there are now experimental Gentoo GNU/Hurd images available.

Gentoo GNU/Hurd images are now available for those wanting to test a Gentoo + Hurd combination within a virtual machine. But don't expect to get too far if wanting to run on real modern hardware given the constraints of Hurd. Gentoo GNU/Hurd is akin to the Debian GNU/Hurd effort.

Gentoo GNU/Hurd remains "heavily experimental" and for now is i686 builds while x86_64 feature parity is a future goal. Release media like stages and automated image builds are part of future plans.

👁 Gentoo GNU Hurd demo


Their revised announcement does show Gentoo GNU/Hurd running on "real hardware" too, but given the size of the display bezel on that Dell laptop, it's a very ancient machine.

Those interested can find the Gentoo GNU/Hurd announcement at Gentoo.org.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.