Re: Hurd state

[Bas Wijnen]

Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    What is the problem with the Hurd? Lack of proper direction? Lack
>    of hackers? Lack of documentation? Lack of ...? What is the
>    problem, really? We need to know it in order to fix it.
>
> There is no problem, but the lack of imagination from those who wish
> to hack I think. I never really considered it a problem to know what
> to hack on in any free software project, you fix what is broken, and
> you implement what is missing.

There are very few hackers on the project, and that is a problem.  We 
can call it lack of their imagination, but it's our problem, not theirs, 
so blaming them isn't going to help.  I think the main problem is PR: 
the website is outdated, and that's the first place people look.  If 
they see there hasn't been a release for 6 years, they turn around and 
help with a project which isn't dead.  Of course an other problem is 
that Linux is popular, so many people who want to hack on a kernel are 
going there.  But there's not a lot we can do about that either. 
Perhaps we should emphasise more that the Hurd is a much cooler design, 
so it's nicer to hack on it.

Anyway, I think we have to make ourselves heard, and it doesn't really 
matter that much what we're saying.  A release would probably be a very 
good start, although the website really should be updated before releasing.

Thanks,
Bas

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