GNU/Linux naming controversy lacking. The GNU kernel was called GNU Hurd. The Hurd followed an ambitious design which proved unexpectedly difficult to implement and has only been marginally usable. Independently, in 1991, Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux kernel. Early Linux developers ported GNU code, including the GNU C Compiler, to the kernel. The free software community adopted the use of the Linux kernel as the missing kernel for the GNU operating system. This work filled the remaining gaps in providing a completely free operating system. Over the next few years, several suggestions arose for naming operating systems using the
Hybrid kernel Hybrid kernel A hybrid kernel is an operating system kernel architecture that attempts to combine aspects and benefits of microkernel and monolithic kernel architectures used in computer operating systems. The traditional kernel categories are monolithic kernels and microkernels (with nanokernels and exokernels seen as more extreme versions of microkernels). The "hybrid" category is controversial, due to the similarity of hybrid kernels and ordinary monolithic kernels; the term has been dismissed by Linus Torvalds as simple marketing. The idea behind a hybrid kernel is to have a kernel structure similar to that of a microkernel, but to implement that structure in