A very very long time ago, I helped set up the filename structure for
downloads that Fedora uses now of `/pub/fedora/linux` when I set up the
'new' Red Hat Linux download structure for mirrors in 2000. The reason was
that I figured that at some point we might expand to Hurd, a BSD, or other
items as products might grow. When Fedora set up its file structure around
2003, this naming structure was kept and has been around for the last 20
years. In that time, it has been proposed multiple times that `we should do
a <fill in the blank distro>`, but no one has actually done the work to
make it happen.

It takes a LOT more than just proposing something on a mailing list to make
a new port or release work. It takes a lot of hard work to first learn how
the other operating system works, how it compiles, can the tools which make
an operating system 'Fedora' be ported to that tool, and it then takes the
work of making those things happen more than once. At that point, it takes
a lot of ground effort to figure out how much of the software in the Fedora
ecosystem can be compiled for the new operating system and will actually
work in it. Going from the amount of time it took to get the original
Debian Hurd and BSD to actually work (with some idea of how much work the
people getting a RiscV port have done)... my guess would be it would take
about 10-15 people with about 2x that many systems and about 2 to 4 years
to get it to a port where it could be 'releasable' outside of that small
group of people interested in it.

Which I think is why after 24 years, there isn't any other base kernel
under /pub/fedora/ than linux. Just getting a port to a new architecture
takes anywhere from 5-10 people multiple years to make a stable and
repeatable release cycle. These are people who have worked in Linux for a
long time and have experience with the many tools which 'make Fedora' with
previous porting efforts. It would take people who have been running HURD
in some way to know what it does and know how to make things like rpm,
mock, dnf work on a different fundamental architecture (Micro kernel based
versus unikernel).

I wish the people who are interested in it as much luck as I can give.

On Mon, 27 May 2024 at 16:39, Ryan Bach via devel <
devel@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:

> That would be awesome. Thoughts?
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-- 
Stephen Smoogen, Red Hat Automotive
Let us be kind to one another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle.
-- Ian MacClaren
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