While I knew for quite some time the existence of Hurd, and its mission as the official GNU Operating System kernel, I was wondering how come Linux is not embraced as the official GNU kernel over the years, seeing as it is in a much better state than the Hurd?
Linux has been, more or less, serving this role 20+ years so far, however one can see that the GNU Project is keeping its distance when it comes to Linux. Why is this happening? Is it because of a dream that Hurd will (at some point in the future) be in a production quality level? Is it because the GNU project doesn't see its mission reflected as much as it wants in Linux? Is it for other political reasons?
Best Answer
GNU will not adopt something as a project unless the developers agree to certain stipulations which bind all official GNU projects.
Currently the Linux kernel probably does not fit these restrictions, and there is nothing for Linus Torvalds, kernel.org, et al. to gain from placing themselves under the GNU umbrella, and a lot to lose -- the aforementioned binding agreement, and the public perception that the kernel is now a GNU project, which would have a mostly negative impact. GNU's parent organization, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), is a political organization and Torvalds has made various public criticisms of it and the somewhat controversial, iconoclastic lifetime leader/founder of GNU and the FSF, Richard M. Stallman.
Further, the Linux kernel does not require the GNU userspace any more than the GNU userspace requires the Linux kernel. This independence should be considered a good thing by the basic principles of software engineering, which favour modularity and looser coupling as opposed to the opposite (monolithic things with tight coupling).
Another point against this idea is that while HURD may not be of interest to as many people as Linux, the developers and users of HURD may object to having their project effectively dustbinned in a popularity contest. And good for them; "competition" of this sort is a positive thing, whereas bowing to monopolization is not -- you end up with massive entities that stifle creativity in part because they are prone to monolithic/meglomaniacal control. The Linux Foundation already is an independent organization, it might as well stay that way.