[9fans] Plan 9 future (Was: Re: Are the Infernospaces gone?)

[Anthony Sorace anothy@eden.rutgers.edu]

//...releasing Brazil as a commercial product...

well, the first problem is the name. Brazil is dead; long live
Plan 9. they don't even call it that "inside" any more. it seems
to have just been a transitional name to disambiguate the 2nd
edition, as released, from what they did to it next. but WRT the
problems you cited:

//(a) preparing the distribution into a shrink-wrap format

this is only as big an issue as they chose to make it, although
(hopefuly) the choice will impact what they charge for it. if,
for example, they set up some sort of source repository (as
you suggest later), there isn't really much work on this front,
as people know they're getting the "current" state of things.
on the other end of the scale, they could ship CDs with fully
functional systems for various architectures on them. they've
already said they're not going that extreme, but there are
degrees between those options, obviously.

//(b) providing the support that a paying public would be demanding.

again, depends at least partly on (a). also, note that Linux
(as well as most GNU projects and [Net,Free,Open]BSD) had a
respectable community (in terms of size, anyway) even before
Red Hat and IBM came along and started offering official,
comercial support. For my part, i don't really know how much
more i'd want, beyond having fairly direct access to jmk,
presotto, rob, etc. as we do here. and that's to say nothing
of the many other excelent people on this list.

//StarOffice ported to [Plan 9]...

oh, lord. i suppose one could make an argument for it being
good for the platform's future, but it's still a scary idea.

//I sincerely hope the release will be priced considerably
//below the US$ 350 I paid for it a few years back

here, here! a good price for comercial use, but i'm not a
corporation! i want to be able to run the new edition in my
house, for personal use. $350's a bit high for that.
: anothy;