> Why do we actually need Hurd? It is a kernel, isn't it? Why don't we > just use the Linux-libre kernel, instead?
It's a replacement for a Unix kernel implemented as a set of servers running on a GNU Mach microkernel, there are several advantages of this approach explained on https://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/advantages.html and the linked page. Being able to replace parts of it by normal users without rebooting or affecting security of the whole system is an often mentioned feature. (Another microkernel-based system, Minix, is using a microkernel for reliability and being able to restart faulty drivers without rebooting the system, this is not done with Hurd (yet?) since the drivers are mostly in the GNU Mach kernel due to performance reasons from the times it was implemented.)
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