Why is HAL a bad word?

Tim, All, After the discussion both here and on the suse list about the removal of HAL, that brought up a question that I don't fully understand. I know that everyone is moving away from HAL and that it is the way of the future, but "Why?" Briefly - what is wrong with HAL? Is it dead upstream? Does is pose limitations on the ability to do X or Y going forward? If so what are X or Y? Is it udev? What? Like Qt3, all of the past versions of KDE3 and TDE have used HAL and work fantastically - what is the motivation for dumping it? A short sentence or two would help me understand -- or a simply link to why if you have one will do. Thanks, I just want to make sure I understand the issue better... -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.