Re: [9fans] micro vs monolithic kernels

[Steve Kilbane <steve@whitecrow.demon.co.uk>]

> It's damn hard to 'use' a system if it isn't 'installed'.

True. But in general, a system is installed by a single individual over
a handful of hours, and then used by from one to thousands of individuals,
over periods that may last for years. Plan 9 isn't impossible to install,
and evidently many people have reached the end of the installation process,
and are using it. Therefore, evidently, it's worth paying attention to this
ratio.

 From your other posts, it sounds like you're working on solving the
installation problems, though. Very nice, but it would have been nicer still
if you could have just said so, without attacking. The Bell folks are always
open and forthcoming about where their efforts fall short, be it because of
lack of resources, or lack of vision.

> Talk about specious distinctions.

About as specious as writing code that's coherent enough to be read by
someone else, or as putting coder/decoder complexities into the coder so
that the decoder just needs to stream. "Done once" versus "done lots" is
a pretty damn important difference.

When resources are limited, choices have to be made about where one
puts the effort. Indulge my curiosity, for a moment: if you'd being doing
it, Jim, which part of Plan 9 would you have dropped (i.e. not designed or
implemented) so that the time could be spent on the installation process?

steve