>> (As RMS wrote in 1983, "Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix would be convenient for many other people to adopt.")
I have a historical question and I wonder if anyone in this thread has the answer: why did RMS (and, presumably, by then his cycle) had to wait around for Linus Torwalds to write a kernel so they could have one for GNU? RMS in particular has a reputation as a legendary hacker. Was he not able to write his own kernel?
There is GNU/HURD that was supposed to be the kernel. However, its development hit roadblock when microkernel design ended up extremely difficult to debug. Sometimes you can't predict real complexity from the architectural drawing board and prevailing hype in academia, pointing to microkernels as the future at that time. Linus just wanted to implement his own, simple UNIX kernel, based off proven principles, without doing original kernel research.
I have a historical question and I wonder if anyone in this thread has the answer: why did RMS (and, presumably, by then his cycle) had to wait around for Linus Torwalds to write a kernel so they could have one for GNU? RMS in particular has a reputation as a legendary hacker. Was he not able to write his own kernel?