2) performance enhancements are of less priority and more involved than adding new features. any help would of course be appreciated
nope. we shouldnt stop adding features to better optimise the system. we should optimise those features to peform better instead.
Combine those two statements, and you'll end up with a system that nobody will want to use -- simply because it is painfully slow. Hack, I'm booting my laptop into Windows more often than into Linux because of exactly this reason. If the performance was comparable, Windows would be booted only when I needed to use MS Streets&Trips (and probably removed from the disk if I could get Linux equivalent). The way it is now, Windows is booted whenever I want to get something done. Linux only when I have spare time to fool around and nothing better to do in my life. I'm not even booting Linux to show my friends. It would be embarasing how slow the complete system (with GUI) is.
Linux (as complete system, not just the kernel) gained its popularity because it used to be small, fast, and stable. Not because it had tons of bloated features that users could really live without. If I wanted Windows clone, I could just left pre-installed copy of Windows. And it would run much faster.
-- Aleksandar Milivojevic <amilivojevic@xxxxxx> Pollard Banknote Limited Systems Administrator 1499 Buffalo Place Tel: (204) 474-2323 ext 276 Winnipeg, MB R3T 1L7
