Thank you for your invitation to help development on the HURD. I would like to try, but there are few things that are holding me back:
- I have quite a strong background in programming for numerical analysis, things like finite element method and (large) systems of differential equations. I consider myself fluent in FORTRAN, LaTeX and Python but I have little to no experience with C - I can definitely bring myself up to a level where I can bring a positive contribution to GNU/HURD, but the question is how much time I'd have to invest, in other words, I expect it would take a (very) long time before I could become really productive - I am also reluctant because of the experimental nature of this software. I am not sure I want to spend my time on something that will never reach the level of actual application. I have spent 17 years of my life as a professor working on things that are mostly irrelevant and useless, and now I want to spend my time on things that are actually useful. If I were to "join the team", what kind of work are we talking about? Is it feasible to write a complete USB driver, or something with sound? Thanks, Shinichi 2026年1月30日(金) 9:22 João Pedro Malhado <[email protected]>: > Hello Shinichi, > > On Fri, Jan 30, 2026 at 06:41:40AM +0900, Wilfred van Rooijen wrote: > > So, all in all, given from what I have read so far: > > > > - booting on physical hardware (i.e. not emulated) is limited to a few > > Thinkpad models and for anything else "Your Mileage May Vary" (sources do > > seem to implicate that that probably means "Your Mileage is Probably > Nearly > > Zero") > > I agree with the former bit, not so much with your extrapolation. I run > the Hurd > on 3 different laptops, none of which is a Thinkpad. Somethings work, some > don't. > You should try it out for yourself. > > > - no sound > > > > - no USB > > > > - limited support of SATA disks > > > > - I am guessing no BlueTooth > > > > - limited availability of drivers for network cards (although "most > should > > work") > > > > - limited availability of other hardware drivers > > > > Are the above observations correct, and if so, what is the state of > > development? > > Yes, that's about right. Development is great. Join in, there is a lot to > do. > > Regards, > João >
