The future of Plan9?

[Eric Dorman edorman@Tanya.ucsd.edu]

>> The central idea of Plan9 with a *single* unified structure for all
>> architectures is intensely appealing.
>Plan 9 is not the only operating system that runs on multiple
>architectures.  Solaris, Linux, NetBSD, and OpenBSD all run on
>multiple targets, and I suspect NetBSD runs on more of them than Plan
>9.

True, but one is still left with a bunch of unix systems, rather
than a single unified _structure_ that encompasses all the
architectures, not just being able to build from the same 
source tree.  I can't easily keep a single tree with objects
for all architectures available. Cross-compilation environments
in the past have been clumsy to maintain (for me at least); 
maintaining more than 1 target would be horrendous.

>The price in itself is damaging but not fatal; a lot of good OS
>development effort comes out of universities, where finding $350 to
>buy a Plan 9 distribution is easy.  But why would I want to spend my
>time working on a proprietary system when I can work on my pick of
>freely redistributable Unix systems?

Indeed.  The freenix systems are pretty stable, particularly
x86; stable enough that there are some brave souls that use
it in production.  That is, however, just another unix box
on the net somewhere... there's basically no hassle-free
integration above the single-unit level.

>I'm not happy with the state of the OS world today, but if Plan 9
>wants to be considered as a step in the right direction, it has to
>either have real commercial backing or be free.  From my opinionated
>point of view, AT&T's lawyers and management consigned Plan 9 to the
>permanent status of "interesting curio" when they set the distribution
>policy.  Maybe Inferno will go somewhere else.

I agree.. unfortunately Inferno doesn't solve the problems I need
to cope with, and nothing anywhere eases my administrative and 
software burdens without causing more pain that it's worth.  Sigh.
All that horsepower going to waste.

Sincerely,

Eric Dorman
University of California at San Diego
Department of Radiology
edorman@tanya.ucsd.edu