Whence Hurd (was: What is ``access (NULL, whatever)'' supposed to do?)

[Thomas Schwinge]

Hello!

On Thu, Apr 12, 2007 at 01:49:55PM -0700, Roland McGrath wrote:
> I think tb has covered the essence here already.  tschwinge, your comments
> here are really not apropos, and frankly they seem gratuitously hostile to
> the basic principles that have always driven Hurd development.

I apologize.


> Once upon a time, [...] continue to define the Hurd's mission for as
> long as there are Bushnells and McGraths who can remember what a Hurd
> is.

Roland, thank you.  I read your email.  Then I thought about it a bit.
After a while I read it again.  Then I said to someone on irc ``I begin
to see their points.''  I begin to see their points.  Now.

I'm with this project for about two years now -- as I told you in one of
my latest emails.  And _now_ I begin to really see your real points.

Of course.  I looked through old email archives.  I have something here
that I'd call a rather complete archive of the (public) GNU Hurd
communications.  (Nearly 30.000 emails, spam already filtered out, still
lots of junk, of course.)  It starts with emails written by a Michael
I. Bushnell, dated May 1991.  I poked through these emails.

Now, I don't know if the Hurd's essence you just formulated was also
formulated like that in the early nineties when the goal probably still
was more like getting out the imagined operating system.  But: I can't
even tell.  Too much -- and this I think is usually a very good sign --
was discussed at that time that was not written down in emails or in any
other written form.  But it makes life damn much harder for us (me), who
joined fourteen years after the beginning.


Roland, Thomas, seriously, you should write a book or something.  Please.
Write about why the GNU Hurd is one centimeter above the rest.  And write
about why it's damn worth it.


Thank you.

Regards,
 Thomas

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