Re: Let's do some coding :-)

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Sun, 2005-10-23 at 20:19 +0200, ness wrote:
> > Is support for ACLs important given that they don't
> > actually work and interact badly with capabilities?
> 
> Yes. One of our aimes is to build a unix replacing OS.

Hurd needs to be able to run existing applications with acceptable
porting cost. To do this, Hurd needs to supply a POSIX compatibility
layer, a toolkit compatibility layer, or possibly both.

But if the goal is for *native* Hurd to be a POSIX system, then I want
to suggest that this aim should be re-examined. POSIX is certainly the
very best 1960's OS we know about, but it's been 45 years, and the world
has learned some things since then. There are already really good open
source implementations of POSIX.

Which raises two questions:

  1. Why do we need *another* POSIX OS? What real value can it provide?
  2. Shouldn't we be looking forward rather than backward?

shap