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authorThomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>2011-05-02 10:02:49 +0200
committerThomas Schwinge <thomas@schwinge.name>2011-05-02 10:02:49 +0200
commit50b583deedb7adaf2d954732b4c9b3c25cd2cde6 (patch)
treeb743ddad73706bbbcaecc3854011612e0cc3803e
parent842a71322049b889dc28201a07c16eac64c52a7b (diff)
faq/how_many_developers: FSF, industry, science.
-rw-r--r--faq/how_many_developers.mdwn18
1 files changed, 18 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn
index 93283113..ab8e8f28 100644
--- a/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn
+++ b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@ handful helps with [[Debian GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] and
developers are still available for answering technical questions, but are not
participating in the current development anymore.
+In the past (that is, a lot of years ago), the FSF did pay a few developers for
+working full time on the GNU Hurd. But that was for a limited amount of time
+only, and evidently, it was too little for getting the system into a
+competitive state. Nowadays, it's only unpaid and free-time volunteers' work.
+
+In contrast to the Linux kernel, there is no industry involvement in
+development. For one, this is a good thing: independency; no conflicts of
+interests. For another, it is also a bad thing: no dedicated full-time
+manpower -- which matters a lot.
+
# Why So Few?
@@ -34,6 +44,14 @@ involvement a waste of time. This latter point is invalid, of course, as
learning can never be a waste of time. The same holds for the [[challenges]]
raised by the GNU Hurd -- we can only learn and improve upon working on them.
+For likely the same reasons there is no industry interest in the GNU Hurd: its
+advantages are too abstract and incomplete for being of interest there.
+
+As for the scientific sector, the GNU Hurd projects was rather about *using* a
+[[microkernel]] intead of doing research on them, for example. But, there have
+been some projects and theses done, and some scientific papers published on GNU
+Hurd topics, and we're generally very interested in further such projects.
+
# Attracting New Faces