[9fans] What is it used for today?

[9fans] What is it used for today?

[Matt J]

Hey all,

I've been reading some of the papers about plan9 and the FAQ's.  Having
never actually used it before, what are people using it for today?  I
think the concepts behind it are great, but don't see much use of it in
the non-scientific community (like the average business).  Maybe it's
not meant for business....  Thanks for your opinions...

-m

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Jim Choate]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Matt J wrote:

> I've been reading some of the papers about plan9 and the FAQ's.  Having
> never actually used it before, what are people using it for today?  I
> think the concepts behind it are great, but don't see much use of it in
> the non-scientific community (like the average business).  Maybe it's
> not meant for business....  Thanks for your opinions...

Consider a grocery chain. IO servers for registers. File servers for
managing stock tracking, purchasing, and payroll. Process serves to manage
those spikey loads. With inherent distribution the file and process
functions would provide a distributed backup mechanism.

Consider a doctors office as part of a hospital and how having mobile
global sign-on could be effective in their work.

Consider a wireless network and public safety in an emergency and getting
access to important documentation out in a field.

These examples, by using a Plan 9 model inherit robustness and a level of
fail-over 'out of the box' that under other OS'es require extensive
tweeking.

There are other examples at,

http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18


 --
    ____________________________________________________________________

         Kill them all, take their land, and go there for vacation.

                                         Rage Against The Machine

       The Armadillo Group       ,::////;::-.          James Choate
       Austin, Tx               /:'///// ``::>/|/      ravage@ssz.com
       www.ssz.com            .',  ||||    `/( e\      512-451-7087
                           -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'-
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Ronald G Minnich]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Matt J wrote:

> I've been reading some of the papers about plan9 and the FAQ's.  Having
> never actually used it before, what are people using it for today?  I
> think the concepts behind it are great, but don't see much use of it in
> the non-scientific community (like the average business).  Maybe it's
> not meant for business....  Thanks for your opinions...

It's totally useless for business. If you're running plan 9, you have no
way to propagate Outlook viruses, for example.

Also, it's very important that any business OS have a superuser that can
do anything, because that makes life so much more interesting for people
-- esp. the wrong people. With all this opportunity we can keep the script
kiddies off the streets. It also sells more "windows security for morons"
type books.

Finally, when programs like ISS run amok, you want them to have access to
everything, so they have more room in which to play. Windows is absolutely
ideal for this sort of thing.

Oh well, seriously, at the very least expect to see other OSes ripping off
Plan 9 ideas and then claiming to have invented them. I ripped off private
name spaces and 9P and plugged them into Linux a few years back (don't
worry I didn't claim to have invented them). I then hit the "but why do
you need that" wall. It's a hard concept to communicate (for me anyway).

But you're either going to see Plan 9 or Plan 9 ideas in business. Plan 9
(since it was open sourced) is finally going to get its due -- 10 years
late, but better that then never.  Two little things:  we can get rid of
16- and 32- bit UIDs and all that other Unix junk; we can kill superusers.

ron

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Dan Cross]

In article <Pine.LNX.4.33.0109240741410.2055-100000@snaresland.acl.lanl.gov> you write:
>It's totally useless for business. If you're running plan 9, you have no
>way to propagate Outlook viruses, for example.
>
>Also, it's very important that any business OS have a superuser that can
>do anything, because that makes life so much more interesting for people
>-- esp. the wrong people. With all this opportunity we can keep the script
>kiddies off the streets. It also sells more "windows security for morons"
>type books.
>
>Finally, when programs like ISS run amok, you want them to have access to
>everything, so they have more room in which to play. Windows is absolutely
>ideal for this sort of thing.

You know, I was half-way through my morning cinnamon roll and coffee
when I read this.  Now, I have bits of cinnamon roll and coffee stuck
in my nassal passages, and it's very uncomfortable.  I intend to sue.
Sue you, sue me, sue everybody.

>[...] we can kill superusers.

Uh oh; I have the root password to the Unix machine down the hall.
Does this mean I should be scared?  (Not that I'm not scared already,
anyway.)

Okay, I'm returning to my daily routine and promise to send no more
off-topic silly posts to 9fans for at least a week.

	- Dan C.

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Boyd Roberts]

> It's totally useless for business. If you're running plan 9, you have no
> way to propagate Outlook viruses, for example.

just watching how quickly it runs is a jaw dropper.  windoze is just
so slow and i'm used to that.  compiling _all_ the binaries (ie. for
all the architectures) from the cvs source, taken from the vita cd,
must have taken 20 seconds.

i look at some of the source to that _thing_ [cvs] -- one page of disclaimers,
comments, noise etc for a 5 line function, that smashes / off the end of
strings iirc.  nice going guys [cvs authors].

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Boyd Roberts]

> You know, I was half-way through my morning cinnamon roll and coffee
> when I read this.  Now, I have bits of cinnamon roll and coffee stuck
> in my nassal passages, and it's very uncomfortable.  I intend to sue.
> Sue you, sue me, sue everybody.

dan, you're not 'sposed to snort them, ok?

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Matthew Hannigan]

Jim Choate wrote:

> There are other examples at,
>
> http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18

Are these real implementations or ideas?

Regards,
 -Matt

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Boyd Roberts]

> Are these real implementations or ideas?

reads like a bad vapourware glossy from a trade show.

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Jim Choate]

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Matthew Hannigan wrote:

> Jim Choate wrote:
>
> > There are other examples at,
> >
> > http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18
>
> Are these real implementations or ideas?

They are projects we are working on.


 --
    ____________________________________________________________________

         Kill them all, take their land, and go there for vacation.

                                         Rage Against The Machine

       The Armadillo Group       ,::////;::-.          James Choate
       Austin, Tx               /:'///// ``::>/|/      ravage@ssz.com
       www.ssz.com            .',  ||||    `/( e\      512-451-7087
                           -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'-
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[mlh]

>
> On Tue, 25 Sep 2001, Matthew Hannigan wrote:
>
> > Jim Choate wrote:
> >
> > > There are other examples at,
> > >
> > > http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18
> >
> > Are these real implementations or ideas?
>
> They are projects we are working on.
>

Great!  How can I help?  Where's the source?

Regards,
 -Matt



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