"Plan 9 failed simply because it fell short of being a compelling enough
improvement on Unix to displace its ancestor. Compared to Plan 9, Unix
creaks and clanks and has obvious rust spots, but it gets the job done
well enough to hold its position. There is a lesson here for ambitious
system architects: the most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an
existing codebase that is just good enough."
This is why I think the relevant question is not just now to make
the Hurd work well enough to use, but how to make it sufficiently
better that people would be attracted to it.
However, since we're talking about a new kernel rather than a whole
new system, this obstacle is not as big for us as it was for Plan 9.
We may be able to do it.
