From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 19:49:38 -0500 From: Kurt H Maier To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: <20121127004938.GA69980@intma.in> References: <182fe91a2f41460ad68308581f548599@brasstown.quanstro.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <182fe91a2f41460ad68308581f548599@brasstown.quanstro.net> Subject: Re: [9fans] RIP: Uriel Topicbox-Message-UUID: e53f3962-ead7-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 07:30:41PM -0500, erik quanstrom wrote: > > taunting about the 9load replacement, which sadly will now never > > happen.. > > cinap's ipl/9boot doesn't work for you? I would like to interject for a moment. What you're refering to as ipl/9boot, is in fact, 9boot/ipl, or as I've recently taken to calling it, 9boot minus 9front. 9boot is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning 9front system made useful by the 9boot bootloader and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by cinap. Many computer users run a modified version of the 9front system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of 9front which is widely used today is often called "9boot", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the 9front system, developed by the cat-v Project. There really is a ipl/9boot, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. ip/l9boot is the bootloader: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other kernels that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. ipl/9boot is normally used in combination with the 9front operating system: the whole system is basically 9front with ipl/9boot added, or 9boot/ipl. All the so-called "ipl/9boot" distributions are really distributions of 9boot/ipl.