Re: [9fans] Second class citizenship (Was: writing code)

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

rog@vitanuova.com wrote:

>i'm not sure i agree.  if you can always contact your authentication
>and file servers, the current plan 9 model works fine, but i think the
>idea of universal global interconnect isn't realistic.  firewalls are
>ubiquitous.  network coverage is patchy (and probably always will be).
>
>
>
As I see it, network coverage has no alternative but to improve.  In my
opinion, there is growing pressure for mobile telephony networks to
become more and more reliable and pervasiveness is already great and can
only be extended.  I speak from Africa, where cell phones have (I could
be wrong, but I think it's true) overtaken landlines.

I agree that firewalls and other obstacles exist, but they serve a need
that Plan 9 already addresses in a much more sensible fashion.  In other
words, laptops are misused and the alternatives exist (I presume Plan 9
is one, Inferno another, there may be more) and will eventually be
discovered.  Call me an optimist, but all it takes is for some
influential personality to discover a better way to do things and the
entire fashion swings.

For example, Mark Shuttleworth used to carry extremely valuable
information in his laptop (I'm not sure I should reveal exactly what).
Were he to discover a more secure way of doing the same today, he is
sufficiently influential in South Africa to set at least a local trend.
Here, between GPRS and G3, 'Net access over mobile phones is pretty
good, at a premium.  Certainly within the financial reach of a Mark
Shuttleworth.

++L