> Why were people who apparently did not have much experience using coreutils assigned to rewrite coreutils?
From what I understand, "assigned" probably isn't the best way to put it. uutils started off back in 2013 as a way to learn Rust [0] way before the present kerfuffle.
Yeah perhaps learning UNIX API's and Rust at the same time doesn't lead to a drop in replacement ready to be shipped in major distributions. Who whould have thunk it.
Strictly speaking it doesn't preclude eventually producing a production-ready drop-in replacement either, though evidently that needs a fresh set of eyes.
