From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@9fans.net Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:17:24 +0000 From: Purple_Q Message-ID: <2424953b-3f00-4f3e-a4c1-f02fa846b65e@v36g2000vbs.googlegroups.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: [9fans] How 'bout a 9 USER site? Topicbox-Message-UUID: d8b6b852-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 Greets all. I'll cut straight to the chase for those who don't like reading long posts, else please bare with me and read this entire post so you can offer an opinion. I would like to erect a site that aims to show Plan9 in a more user/ desktop direction for those who share the enthusiast/niche category. I want to put up a site with information for users; not how to manage a mainframe or something, but with info like how to download and install 3rd party apps, how to access usb keys and install apps (for those like me who's ethernet card doesn't work in plan9), and things like how to burn CD's, how to add users and "faces", how to change the background (if that can even be done). In short; simple user functions. Plan9, while I know there are some here that would disagree, never seemed to me to be geared towards the casual desktop user (it is a research OS no?). I would like to show it in a different light, with help from anyone here who will contribute walkthrus, command strings, and howtos. I also wouldn't mind if enough of the community would elect someone (if interested) that I would give FTP access to, to help manage the site and add things, etc. What do you think? Now for the more patient readers; here's the HOW and WHY. For the HOW; I have a corny little personal homesite at www.queuevonqu.com I pay just short of $15 a month for unlimited webspace. I have a half serious, half for fun project as a chiptune producer (which if you're not familiar, chiptune is a genre of electronic music that is made using the sound hardware of vintage video game systems or computer hardware, in my case, a pair of Atari 2600's). The website address is www.bitpusher2600.net. See, I bought the domain name from GoDaddy and have it set up to forward to the actual address, which is a subdomain on my homesite : bitpusher2600.queuevonqu.com I am thinking that if I get enough support from the board here (digital support, NOT money), I will make the same setup with something like "plan9-4u.net" or "plan9desktop.net" or something like that (name suggestions welcome!) For the WHY: I grew up with (and my first computer as a child for xmas) was an Apple. I got some PC experience much later. Anyway, I was around 17 or so when someone introduced me to linux. He had several distros and at first I was intrigued, but not overly impressed. I tried quite a few in a month's time until I came upon Slackware. He told me of all of them to use and learn on, that one was the toughest he had and is considered quite advanced. Being someone who sees sheer beauty in minimalism, I was loving it's lack of "over guification". I experienced this MAGNETISM, I couldn't stop thinking about what I was seeing and would day dream about it often. Unbelievable emotion. I used it for just a hair over 9 years straight, never even trying another distro because I loved what I had and was quite comfortable. The same thing happened when I met a fella online recently who was a nut for FreeBSD. We got to talking in a forum and he told me "if you're a Slackware veteran, you'll almost be quite at home, and plus blah blah blah" (onward with the list of advantages and superiority of it compared to linux). That was just a couple months ago, nowadays i'm a pure FreeBSD user. Why tell all of that? I'm experiencing the same feelings with Plan9, though the funny thing is I can hardly do a damn thing with it at the moment. I have no clue how to access my thumb drive, how to install 3rd party software, etc. I need walkthrus and etc, people to "hold my hand" along the way. How to do simple user tasks. I can't help it though, i'm totally "in love" with this OS and am driven to figure it out, which is why I bother you kind folks all the time :) So indeed, it's a learning experience for me. I'd like to take everything a desktop user (like me) can learn in Plan9 and put it up for direct and easy reference for others. Also, to help promote Plan9 and bring it to the attention of fellow linux and BSD geeks who might enjoy using it. I realize it's not got alot of modern things, like flash and java, I don't know that it has IM or the such either, but I thought I read somewhere once that Mplayer works for it??? If you've read all of this i'm very grateful. I really would like to put up a minimalistic, simple website for end-users to learn simple and common "desktop" administration, myself included. **For those who would like to help; I will give you credit on each walkthru, howto, command string, etc you are willing to help with however you want me to (name, alias, email, url link, etc). Help a complete newbie help other newbies! I want to bring more light to Plan9.