Re: Development news

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > And you always have access to the source code, but not to a web
   > browser.

   No argument.  This renders to lynx|links|w3m|<text browser>
   vs. cvs.

No it doesn't render it to that, you still need a net connection to be
able to use a text browser.

   I'm speaking for people who want to have it handy and nice when
   looking for some information.  That means graphical hypertext to me
   atm., or in other words: HTML + CSS viewed with IE.

It is not our job to care about people that use non-free software.

And really, what is the point of having a "good looking page", with no
useful information?  The Hurd project lacks a lot of documentation.

   I think of the Hurd front page the most important "marketing tool".

Then you have an incorrect idea of what that page is supposed todo.
It is meant as a central source for information related about the Hurd
project.

   It would be nice to see the access stats and find out what people
   visit the Hurd pages at gnu.org.  I always had the impression that
   lots of people watch the Hurd very closely.  Like the mailing list.
   We have a very high reader/contributor ratio [1]. Unfortunately the
   stats for mail are gone with Nils Lohner.

How in heavens name would statistics help?  They don't produce code,
documentation, bug reports, help new users, etc.  Statistics are
completly useles.

   I could happily live with some people trying to run the Hurd just
   because of the good impression they had looking at the pages.

I wouldn't, trying to use something does not help to develop it.  And
having "nice pages" don't help in that regard in anyway what so ever.

   > Recall also that some people don't use the web at all, or not
   > very frequently.

   I'm not talking about that people.

Irrelevant.  The web pages should serve for everyone, including those
who use speech syntesiers, or those who use the CVS version of Xfree86
and Gnome.

Cheers.