From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Private Namespaces for Linux From: nigel@9fs.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="upas-uaylooicjoopopigegfkhoprzm" Message-Id: <20011127072540.49B96199D7@mail.cse.psu.edu> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 07:24:45 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 2aed91d8-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --upas-uaylooicjoopopigegfkhoprzm Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > 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. Hmm, never used TeX in my life. Perhaps I'm not having fun with Plan 9. --upas-uaylooicjoopopigegfkhoprzm Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Disposition: inline Received: from mail.cse.psu.edu ([130.203.4.6]) by cpu; Tue Nov 27 02:29:43 GMT 2001 Received: from psuvax1.cse.psu.edu (psuvax1.cse.psu.edu [130.203.4.6]) by mail.cse.psu.edu (CSE Mail Server) with ESMTP id 8F9BC19A4C; Mon, 26 Nov 2001 21:24:12 -0500 (EST) Delivered-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Received: from chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu (chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu [131.215.43.162]) by mail.cse.psu.edu (CSE Mail Server) with ESMTP id 79896199D7 for <9fans@cse.psu.edu>; Mon, 26 Nov 2001 21:23:04 -0500 (EST) Received: by chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu (Postfix, from userid 2738) id 233B2781C8; Mon, 26 Nov 2001 18:23:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP for <9fans@cse.psu.edu> id A3B9ECC23F; Mon, 26 Nov 2001 18:22:57 -0800 (PST) To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Private Namespaces for Linux In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 27 Nov 2001 13:13:44 +1300." <3.0.6.32.20011127131344.0097d458@pop3.clear.net.nz> From: Quinn Dunkan Message-Id: <20011127022302.233B2781C8@chunder.ugcs.caltech.edu> Sender: 9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu Errors-To: 9fans-admin@cse.psu.edu X-BeenThere: 9fans@cse.psu.edu X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.7 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu List-Help: List-Id: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans.cse.psu.edu> List-Archive: Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 18:22:57 -0800 > > 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. --upas-uaylooicjoopopigegfkhoprzm--