Re: Future Direction of GNU Hurd?

[Valerio Bellizzomi]

On Mon, 2020-09-14 at 12:41 -0700, Jonathan S. Shapiro wrote:
> All:
> 
> I'm reluctant to say this, because I know several of the people who have
> put a lot of their heart and soul into the Hurd over many, many years.
> 
> The fundamental problem with the Hurd is the same as it has always been: it
> is a solution looking for a problem. Hurd advocates have not been able to
> clearly articulate what problem is being solved and why it is a problem
> that users should care about or be concerned about. This has been the state
> of the Hurd *for 30 years*. I am reluctant to say something so
> discouraging, but when a project has not moved forward substantially in 30
> years it is probably time to devote your very real and talented energy to
> something that will actually have an impact in the world.
> 
> We went through this at Xanadu, and it definitely wasn't an easy thing to
> admit to ourselves or to act on. It helped, in our case, that we were able
> to sell off the intellectual property assets that we had developed.
> Nonetheless, the people who had put so much work and so much commitment
> into the project were both sad and angry to see it end. Some of the old
> guard went and formed a new, open source project to try to carry the work
> forward (which was a surprise, because Ted isn't exactly a fan of open
> source). Though the participants remain enthusiastic, that project has made
> no substantive progress since the 1980s.
> 
> At one time, Xanadu and the Dynabook were referred to as "Platinum
> Vaporware." Both ended up having significant impact. The Dynabook by
> inspiring the current generation of tablet devices, and Xanadu through Tim
> Berners-Lee, whose decision to drip transclusion and charging/payment
> structures resulted in what we now know as the World Wide Web. I think it
> isn't clear yet what the Hurd alumni will build from their experience, but
> some of them have certainly done interesting things on other projects.
> 
> I'm not trying to make any comment here about technical merit. I'm only
> trying to suggest that it may be time to step back, take a deep breath, and
> ask yourself what the best way is for you to have an impact on the world.
> If it is Hurd, great. If it is not, figure out what it is and go do that.
> 
> Respectfully,
> 
> 
> Jonathan Shapiro


I have been very sad to see the end of the Coyotos project, it was in my
view a top-designed OS, though I don't consider its end as a failure. I
have spent many years following the project and maybe I have learnt
something from it. After many years I still hope to see it resurrecting
in a way or another, to contribute to it up to a point where it would
make "real impact", specially to use it in some realtime applications I
care of. You may have understood that this is a call to move back one
step, and rethink about it, then you are right :-)

All the best.

Valerio Bellizzomi