Merge branch 'master' of flubber:~hurd-web/hurd-web

2 files changed, 54 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn
index 8b6c4226..ff169b0a 100644
--- a/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn
+++ b/community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn
@@ -112,7 +112,13 @@ monologue at the end... I really should put these ideas into my blog.)"*
 
 Another example of features which would be easily possible with the Hurd: 
 
-* media-player translator: 
+* transparent ftp (already possible!):
+	- settrans -c ftp: /hurd/hostmux /hurd/ftpfs /
+	- ls ftp://ftp.gnu.org/
+	- # -> list the files on the FTP server.  
+
+
+* media-player translator:
  	- settrans play /hurd/mediaplayer_play
 	- cp song1.ogg song2.ogg play
 	- # -> files get buffered and played.
@@ -246,8 +252,8 @@ Applications
 A minor phase, which will surely be interleaved with the others: Making the ideas 
 tangible to turn them into ways how people can use the Hurd. 
 
-"Hey, look, this is the Hurd. You can use it like this to do that which you can't do 
-as well/easily/elegantly in any other way."
+*"Hey, look, this is the Hurd. You can use it like this to do that which you can't do 
+as well/easily/elegantly in any other way."*
 
 
 ### Applications for private use
@@ -264,18 +270,18 @@ it's too hard.
 
 From what I see, each direct cool application must be about as simple as 
 
-$ qemu hurd-is-cool.img
-$ login root
-$ settrans cool /hurd/cool
+$ qemu hurd-is-cool.img  
+$ login root  
+$ settrans cool /hurd/cool  
 $ ls cool
 
 One main focus in this example is: No command line parameters but the ones we 
 really need. No "-a", if the example is also cool without it. 
 No "--console" if it works otherwise. 
 
-Especially no "qemu --cd livecd --hda hurd.img ..." - that one is great for 
-specialists, but the goal here isn't to teach people better usage of qemu, 
-but to show them that the Hurd is cool, and only that. 
+Especially no *"qemu --cd livecd --hda hurd.img ..."* - that one is great for 
+people who already know qemu or want to learn it, but the goal here isn't to teach people 
+better usage of qemu, but to show them that the Hurd is cool, and only that. 
 
 All that interesting advanced stuff just gets newcomers confused. 
 
diff --git a/community/weblogs/antrik/hurd-mission-statement.mdwn b/community/weblogs/antrik/hurd-mission-statement.mdwn
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..592e176a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/community/weblogs/antrik/hurd-mission-statement.mdwn
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+For a while I have been thinking about the lack of a roadmap for the
+Hurd; but now I realized that we lack something even more fundamental: a
+simple mission statement -- i.e. saying where we want to go, rather
+than how we want to get there. I think many of the problems we have are
+directly or indirectly related to that.
+
+As we didn't have such a mission statement so far, the people currently
+involved have vastly different ideas about the mission, which of course
+makes it a bit hard to come up with a suitable one now. However, I
+managed to come up with something that I believe is generic enough so
+all contributors can subscribe to it:
+
+>   *The mission of the Hurd project is: to create a general-purpose
+>   kernel suitable for the GNU operating system, which is viable for
+>   everyday use, and gives users and programs as much control over their
+>   computing environment as possible.*
+
+*"Suitable for GNU"* in the first part implies a number of things. I
+explicitely mentioned *"general-purpose"*, because this an important
+feature that sets the Hurd apart from many other microkernel projects,
+but isn't immediately obvious.
+
+I didn't mention that it must be entirely free software, as this should
+be obvious to anyone familiar with GNU.
+
+Another thing I did not mention, because it's too controversial: how
+much UNIX do we need? I think that being suitable for GNU requires a
+pretty high degree of UNIX compatibility, and also that the default
+environment looks to the user more or less like UNIX. However, some
+people claimed in the past that GNU could do without UNIX -- the wording
+used here doesn't totally preclude such views.
+
+The second part also leaves a lot of slack: I for my part still believe
+that a Mach-based Hurd can be viable for everyday use; but those who
+think that a microkernel change is required, should be happy with this
+wording as well.
+
+The third part tries to express the major idea behind the Hurd design in
+the most compact and generic way possible.