FirstStep is an experimental kernel, to build up experience, and as a test bed for later evaluations.
To be of maximum educational value, and of maximum use for other developers who might want to take code from our example, FirstStep is placed in the Public Domain - use, copy, modify, redistribute at will. No hooks attached. (See LicenseReasoning.)
We will use FirstStep to test and evaluate a great many things. The infrastructure for example (version control, bug tracker, modus operandi...). We will build experience and know-how in handling low-level kernel constructs. We will use it to testbed the C library implementation, and to identify further requirements for the C library. We will use FirstStep to verify the viability of some of our design ideas, and as a prototyping testbed for the upcoming "Foundation" kernel - all this without cluttering the "Foundation" repository with the "noise" generated by temporary code.
Besides, in whole FirstStep will be much simpler in structure than "Foundation", and as such better suited for non-Pro-POS developers to look at for guidance on how to start things.