Hello fellow Hurd enthusiasts. Let me start by saying that I am new to Hurd. I've been studying up on the project and I must say that I am thoroughly impressed. It is an older project, but when one looks at the history of open source development, it's clear why the Hurd project has proceeded at a slower rate. It's a very innovative project that is going where very few have gone before. It's the wild wild west of programming. Never before has an open source project attempted to tackle such an ambitious project. Monolithic kernels are easy in comparison. I've got to tell you, I'm hooked on Hurd. If there's anything that has the long term potential to
be a Win_ows killer, it's Hurd. As a newbie, I do have the luxury of not being so involved in the project that I can't see the obvious. I'm excited that there's a lot of work going on right now. After studying the current status of Hurd and observing phenomena such as the ever-growing popularity of GNU software licensing, OSkit, and Hurd's association with Debian...I am extraordinarily optimistic about the future of Hurd. However, I've seen a lot of talk about making the Debian GNU/Hurd operating system easier to install. I think that's a great goal, but honestly it's not that hard to install for someone who finds the project exciting and worthwhile. I'm not usually one who endorses the idea of "Right of Passage" or creating a test for someone to be involved, but if that happens due to the current state of affairs, so be it. In my opinion, the moderately competent Linux user should be able to install Hurd. Specifically, anyone who can create partitions using fdisk, mount partitions, and extract tarballs should be able to install Hurd. Anyone else should consider starting with Linux as an environment to upgrade their knowledge. Rather than focusing on a better install method using a cdrom, I suggest getting DHCP,PPP, and PPPoE working. I have been going into #hurd on irc.openprojects.net a lot lately due to my mission to learn all things Hurd. After a week or so, curiousity overwhelmed me and I 'CTCP Version' ed people to see what people they were running. Turns out it's mostly Linux! I've asked why and found out that many run Hurd, but are forced to use Linux as a router. Considering most major operating systems use CVS or archives (like Debian Linux) for updating package versions, I think it's a tactical mistake not to fully and properly support DHCP, PPP, and PPPoE. Indeed, Hurd developers and users' NEED to have a presence on the internet running Hurd to attract new developers and have the tools required to move Hurd to the next phase, "stable release". It's not practical to expect Hurd users and developers to have another computer as a router or reboot to Linux to send updated code to a CVS repository or access the internet. I'm not trying to discourage people by pointing out Hurd is a bit deficient in the networking category. That is not my intent. Hurd has its strengths too. Hurd can run XFree86 ver4.0x. It has come a long way! Hurd has a very flexible kernel with a lot of capabilities. My point is that we should perhaps shift our priorities to overcome glaring deficiencies that handicap development. sincerely, Kevin Werckman P. S. I volunteer to help in any way I can. Unfortunately, I need to upgrade my programming skills a bit. I'm doing the homework and will get there. Meanwhile, I'd like to get a group of developers together dedicated to fixing Pfinet to fully support DHCP, PPP, and PPPoE. Anyone interested, email me. We can work on getting a special mailing list and other resources needed for this sub-project.