diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'community/weblogs')
| -rw-r--r-- | community/weblogs/ArneBab/niches_for_the_hurd.mdwn | 24 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | community/weblogs/antrik/hurd-mission-statement.mdwn | 39 |
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. |