Talk about advantages, challenges, how many developers, why so few developers.

2 files changed, 52 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a553df21
--- /dev/null
+++ b/faq/how_many_developers.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
+License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[!meta title="How many developers are working on the GNU Hurd?"]]
+
+Not many.  One handful work on it in their free time, and another two
+handful do help with [[Debian GNU/Hurd|hurd/running/debian]] and
+[[hurd/running/Arch_Hurd]] packaging.  Also, an additional handful of
+former developers are still availble for answering technical questions,
+but are not really participating in the current development anymore.
+
+For reaching out to new developers, we're participating in [[Google's
+Summer of Code program|community/gsoc]].  Likewise, any interested party
+(*you*!) are very welcome to start [[contributing]].  Mentoring is
+possible, too, to help you get started.
+
+Continue reading some speculation about [[why so few developers]] are working
+on the GNU Hurd.
diff --git a/faq/why_so_few_developers.mdwn b/faq/why_so_few_developers.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a2740abc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/faq/why_so_few_developers.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]]
+
+[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable
+id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
+Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A copy of the license
+is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation
+License|/fdl]]."]]"""]]
+
+[[!meta title="Why are there so few developers working on the GNU
+Hurd?"]]
+
+[[There aren't working a lot of people on the GNU
+Hurd|how_many_developers]].  Why is this?
+
+We can only speculate.  One major problem might be that the
+[[architectural benefits|advantages]] are generally perceived as very
+abstract, with little practical benefits.  We don't have many tools to
+present actually making use of the possibilities.
+
+Another reason is that it's been taking too long.  Most people don't
+believe it will ever be ready for production use, and thus would consider
+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.