As far as I can tell it's more of a political statement than a goal to somehow deliver a better OS. RS has never been all that happy with Linux being the poster child for free software, especially since the ideological goals of Linux are not the same for the FSF. Witness the fact that Linux is GPL2 not GPL3 and isn't going to GPL3.
At the end of the day it provides an OS to the FSF which they can control, and which isn't Linux. Even if it was in all ways equal to Linux in performance, and features (which seems doubtful) it's unlikely that it would deploy to any great extent.
Just like ReactOS is pretty much "pointless" (given that Windows costs basically nothing), Hurd is practically pointless because it competes with Linux purely on ideological grounds, and is arguably an inferior product. It simply doesn't have enough differentiating it at this point for anyone to really care.
On the other hand, maybe they'll finish it before I die, and maybe it'll contain some ground-breaking improvement, and we'll all be eating humble pie. Anything is possible. In the meantime if they want to carry on working on it, then good for them. Isn't that what open-source is all about?
At the end of the day it provides an OS to the FSF which they can control, and which isn't Linux. Even if it was in all ways equal to Linux in performance, and features (which seems doubtful) it's unlikely that it would deploy to any great extent.
Just like ReactOS is pretty much "pointless" (given that Windows costs basically nothing), Hurd is practically pointless because it competes with Linux purely on ideological grounds, and is arguably an inferior product. It simply doesn't have enough differentiating it at this point for anyone to really care.
On the other hand, maybe they'll finish it before I die, and maybe it'll contain some ground-breaking improvement, and we'll all be eating humble pie. Anything is possible. In the meantime if they want to carry on working on it, then good for them. Isn't that what open-source is all about?