Re: Hurd Advocacy?

[Shawn Boyette <mdxi@collapsar.net>]

On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 02:43:21PM -0700, deFreese, Barry wrote:

> 6.  Kernel issues.  GNUMach 1.x is antiquated, slow, and has issues.  Very
> few (if any) are working on GNUMach 2.x (oskit-mach) and it has issues, and
> L4 isn't ready and probably won't be for quite some time.

> 8.  Direction. (And I am probably going to get blasted for this).  This
> somewhat ties into number 6 also.  There seems to be lacking clear direction
> from the on high of where Hurd needs to be.  I realize that there are few
> developers in the upper echelon of the Hurd but I don't see a clear figure
> head.  Linux had Linus as the spokesperson/figurehead.  Hell even if Linus
> never contributed a line of code after kicking it off there was
> someone/something to rally around.  I don't hear a voice for the Hurd.  I
> realize that this is an open source project and you cannot "make" anyone do
> specific tasks.  However, I believe that if there were some clear directions
> laid out for the Hurd, it may gain some developers.  That is merely
> speculation on my part.  Maybe the thing to do at the moment is somewhat
> freeze development to a degree.  Concentrate what few resources you have on
> getting to L4 and then state some clear direction.  Fix ext2fs next, work on
> X, etc. etc.

This is exactly the conclusion I reached a few days ago when I read
about L4 through Debian Weekly News. I keep wanting to play with the
HURD, but it keeps on not existing. This is almost farsical,
announcing a switch to a new kernel architecture (which, I might add,
is already deprecated by its developers -- Pistachio is the current
branch of L4Ka, not Hazelnut) before the previous new kernel
architecture (OSKit) migration is even completed.

Is this a project to produce a kernel for a GNU OS, or is it some sort
of never-ending, ivory tower, trans-academic wankfest for kernel
geeks?  Can you imagine where GNU would be if gcc and emacs had been
produced this way?

Second on my list would be the 2G limitation, followed by everything
else.

-- 
Shawn Boyette
mdxi@collapsar.net