In short, I'm using Hurd - Paranoiaque/Paranoid

After installing GNU-Hurd, I now need some software for my daily use. I will try to find some alternatives possibilities when the most common software are not working.

Desktop manager

I have installed LXDE and it’s working great. Compared to XFCE, the windows are not cut anymore but still no wallpaper.

apt install -y lxde

Software

Utilities

I appreciate to have some tools but impossible to capture any packet with Wireshark.

apt install -y curl htop screen wireshark

I have been able to install wine and PlayOnLinux. Unfortunately, I can’t start Wine because of a memory allocation problem.

Word processor

Libreoffice is not available. I have been able to use the calligra office suite (KDE) and abiword/gnumeric (Gnome).

apt install -y abiword calligra gnumeric

Web browser

konqueror is installed by default with my desktop environment. I have also been able to install Dillo, Midori and luakit. Unfortunately it’s not possible to install Firefox because of the dependencies.

apt install -y dillo midori luakit

I have used Konqueror for my tests. The computer is really slow but I can navigate on Internet.

Gaming

Without graphical acceleration it’s difficult to play games but I have been able to install OpenArena and Supertux. Unfortunately they don’t start.

Graphic/3D

I have installed Gimp and Inkscape but I can’t install blender.

apt install -y gimp inkscape

They start without any problem.

Multimedia

apt install -y vlc

I have been able to play a mp3 file but no sound.

Server software

I have been able to install the following software:

Apache2, working but I had to install libapache2-mpm-itk
MariaDB Server, working but I had to redefine the root password
Nginx, the latest version is the 1.10.1, very old (2016), I had to reduce the number of worker_connections to start it

Few words about my use

Without any graphical acceleration, the graphical interface is pretty slow. Some software based on libs very depending on Linux features are also missing.

I got also a very confusing problem, missing packages. Sometimes a software is only partially update, one of the package doesn’t build and it’s not possible to install the new version.

root@debian:/home/debian# apt install git -y
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 git : Depends: git-man (< 1:2.32.0-.) but 1:2.33.0-1 is to be installed
       Recommends: patch but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

So to install it, I had to add a snapshot as source like specified in the documentation. With that, I have been able to install an older version of the dependency. With this method it’s possible to install a lot of more software (but outdated), like Firefox for example.

root@debian:/home/debian# apt install git-man=1:2.32.0-1 git -y
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  git git-man liberror-perl patch

Since this problem, the version 2.34.1 has been released and easy to install.

Compared to my previous tests, the filesystem has been very stable. Few years ago I had to fix it after each reboot using fsck.

In short, I’m using Hurd