Re: about GNU Hurd

[jemarch]

   > Why the FSF or the GNU project does not designate a project
   > leader ? Why is there no visibility on this project for any
   > external eye ? What about an official *up to date* website (with
   > all needed informations to attract new hackers) ? ...

   I also think so. to me it seems like Hurd not important to GNU
   Project, so i stopped reading Hurd User Guide and playing with Hurd
   on Qemu. it is pretty much experience of mine that Hurd has
   organizational problems and till then they are solved it will not
   make any difference to work on technical side. 

I agree in that the Hurd project has some organizational issues. But,
just my oppinion, those issues maily comes from a lack of capable
hackers, and from a lack of _actual_ work. There are many people
reading the Hurd User Guide, the Hurd Hacking Guide, the OSF Mach
books, etc. But, how many people you know that is able to actually
hack gnumach? From these mach-capable hackers, how many of them are
_actually_ hacking gnumach?

Some years ago there was a spanish Hurd community. We were three
mach-hacking-capable hackers plus several interested hackers using the
system and willing to collaborate. We organized a Hurd Meeting (a
technical one) hoping we could transmit our knowledge about Mach and
Hurd programming to these hackers. Well, the group died a few months
later. The meeting didnt work.

Many more lines complaining about the state of the Hurd project has
been written than lines of code trying to solve it.

Still, there are organizational problems. I think the project need a
refresh. I would appoint Thomas Schwinge as the unique maintainer for
both the Hurd and gnumach. He seems to be the most active hacker doing
real work. He seems to enjoy working in the actual Hurd kernel (not in
HurdNG or something like that). He could make a new website updated
with clear directions and development procedures in
http://hurd.gnu.org. etc.

I would politely ask Brinkman, Bushnell and Neal to pass the baton to
him. They seem to be working in other projects such as HurdNG, that is
not the Hurd anymore since the basic design has changed. 

I may be wrong, so just my oppinion :)