Re: [9fans] Private Namespaces for Linux

[Quinn Dunkan <quinn@chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu>]

> > intellectual inertia
> > satisfaction with the status quo
> > following the crowd
> > listening to the people who shout the loudest
> > fashion
> > no integrated web browser/mail reader/nntp client/html wysiwyg editor
> >
> I hesitate to use the "M" word around here, but from my perspective the
> absence of anything like MS Excel, Word, and Access is a big disincentive.

I was sort of under the impression that the sort of people who would have fun
with Plan 9 are those who already have more fun with TeX or lout than Word.
Could be wrong, though.

> Also maybe the absence of any books doesn't help visibility. Something like
> "The Plan 9 Programming Environment" would be welcome.

As far as programming in C goes, I think plan 9 is actually better off than
unix or windows with their large bookshelves.  From my point of view:

The best kind of documentation is that which doesn't need to be there.  Plan 9
lacks a lot of historical cruft and spiky pit traps that need documentation
under, say, unix.  The documentation that is there is easy to find and
download and read on the screen or print out if desired, or can even be bought
in hard copy.  This is more flexible than a paper book which only has the last
option.  And lastly (and not leastly), the source is there, and easy to find,
and relatively free of ifdefs and cross-platform special cases and accumulated
toejam.

The situation is less good if C happens to not be your favorite language, but
people who use "minority" languages usually face the same sort of "write it
yourself, then" issues that people who use minority OSes face.