Re: about GNU Hurd

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

       In fact while I am being frank, what is your level of interest
       in the Hurd Richard?  The few times that I have seen you speak
       or read your commentaries, you don't show much of an interest
       yourself.  You speak of Ututo and others when you have legions
       of folks that you could probably drive to the "GNU System".

   When we started development of the Hurd, it was absolutely
   essential.  We needed a free kernel, and there was none.

   Since we have Linux, the Hurd is no longer essential.  Making the
   Hurd work well would be good for two reasons:

   * Because it would be more powerful than Linux.

This isn't true anymore, Linux already does almost everything that the
Hurd does.  Including that Linux has far better, and will always have,
driver support than we can manage.

   * Because it would be a GNU kernel.

   The unfortunate thing is that making the Hurd really secure
   requires Coyotos.  I just asked Marcus Brinkmann how progress is on
   Coyotos.

This isn't true, the Hurd on Mach or L4 can be made equally secure.