[9fans] Wondering about Plan 9

[9fans] Wondering about Plan 9

[Lord Oneiros of The Sacred Order Of Things.]

After receiving the September 2000 issue of Linux Magazine
and reading their short blurb about Plan 9 going open source
I wondered what it was so after doing a small amount of
research I found this newsgroup.

I'm hoping you could provide some useful information about
the Plan 9 environment and if there are any pitfalls I
should be aware of.

--

  "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" - Juvenal, Satires, VI,
347

Re: [9fans] Wondering about Plan 9

[Lucio De Re]

On Mon, Aug 21, 2000 at 08:59:02AM +0000, Lord Oneiros of The Sacred Order Of Things. wrote:
> 
> I'm hoping you could provide some useful information about
> the Plan 9 environment and if there are any pitfalls I
> should be aware of.
> 
The FAQ is published here monthly, I don't know if it has been updated
to match the recent release, which is both dramatically different and
yet very similar to the 1995 edition.

The web site is at <http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/> and there's
enough literature there to keep you out of mischief for a long time.
Then there is a whole lot that I have not yet explored, and a lot more
I don't even know where to start looking for.

I use the mailing list rather than the newsgroup, the gateway
occasionally seems to cause them to diverge and I have no idea which
is better :-)  The crowd here is very knowledgeable if perhaps a touch
headstrong.

Be prepared for a long learning exercise.  Unlike Linux, Plan 9
requires you to get your fingers dirty right from the beginning, and
there are few toys to show off to your friends.  If I was sure that it
is not my anti-Linux prejudice speaking, I'd dare say that the two are
diametrically opposite.

++L

[9fans] Re: Wondering about Plan 9

[Douglas A. Gwyn]

"Lord Oneiros of The Sacred Order Of Things." wrote:
> I'm hoping you could provide some useful information about
> the Plan 9 environment and if there are any pitfalls I
> should be aware of.

Plan 9 is described at its Web site
	http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist
which has links to lots of documentation.  For an overview
select the "Papers" link and fetch the "Plan 9 From Bell Labs"
paper.

We wouldn't know without further information what you consider
a "pitfall".  The main caveats that occur to me are that it is
an experimental (research) platform with unusual but interesting
features, you have to install and maintain it yourself, it has
very few 3rd-party applications available, and it supports just
a subset of possible PC hardware configurations (specified
somewhere in its Web site).