Re: So how do we get this going

[Alfred M\. Szmidt]

   The idea here is to develop a suitable GNU packaging system in
   parallel with the necessary work on the Hurd.

And other GNU projects of course.

       2. Are we dumping /usr?

   (By "dumping" do you mean "eliminating"?)  I don't think so.  Why
   would we do that?

Because /usr isn't needed, but the complete removal of it can wait and
we can have a symbolic link for the time being.

       3. What init system (does that even make sense?)

   I presume we will still need demons, since nobody has proposed any
   better idea to replace them.  Therefore we still need a system to
   stop and start them.

We already have a system to do this, it is called dmd (which isn't a
GNU project, but that is easy to fix since there is only one copyright
holder right now).

(If you want to know more about dmd, I'll happily explain it)

   I believe there is a GNU package that provides a convenient
   interface to starting and stopping demons,

I don't know of any GNU package that does this, and I checked the Free
Software Directory to be sure.  Maybe you confused it with dmd?