[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#2922) Revised version of data-reorganizattion patch

["esr@xxxxxxxxxxx via RT" <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jordi Mallach via RT <rt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Err, so you don't care about the Hurd, that's obvious. Could you at
> least show a bit of respect?

Actually, no.  Not in this case.

<flame>

The HURD is the single most egregious botch in the history of the hacker
community.  From its ill-starred beginnings to its present state of 
Still Not Here after nearly *two decades* of vaporware announcements,
HURD has been consistently mis-designed, mis-implemented, and mis-managed.

Even forgetting the post-1991 history, the FSF took seven years to
fail at a bootstrapping job Linus Torvalds and the 386BSD people each
did successfully in less than eighteen months.

When I saw the project lead's presentation at the Freely
Redistributable Software conference in 1996, it was alreasy clear that
HURD had become an exercise in intellectual masturbation for a team
that didn't fundamentally give a damn about delivering anything
usable.  The ensuing seven years have only confirmed that evaluation.

I know from RMS's own lips that he has seriously considered officially
putting finis to the HURD project.  I can't think why he hasn't done
so.  It's a public embarrassment that has cost FSF a great deal of
credibility, and continues to do so.

The HURD doesn't deserve respect.  In fact, everybody involved with it
deserves a boot up the backside, and then to be laughed at
unmercifully, pour encourager les autres.  

Ordinary failure is something we have to be gentle about lest we
discourage experimentation, but the kind of gold-plated,
triple-barrelled fecklessness that has collected around the HURD has
to be condemned for the good of our community.

"Respect" for the HURD is no service to anyone.

</flame>
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>