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
