Re: Warning: Rant. Please disregard. [Was: Re: [9fans] Is IBM ThinkPad R60e notebook compatible with Plan9?]

[W B Hacker <wbh@conducive.org>]

Robert Sherwood wrote:
> More than that; hobbyists, however enlightened, cannot provide continuing
> funding for Plan 9 development. Witness current hardware support. Plan 9 
> has
> to grow or eventually die.
> 

The overall 'computerish' and network worlds are now large enough that even a 
very small niche can remain viable.

So I don't know that plan9 has to 'grow' as much as it has to be seen as 'of 
value' and still an environment where ideas are put into practice that are NOT 
done [well | at all] elsewhere. Much as is the case with a fair number of 
'embedded' OS.

IOW - it has to be seen as 'useful' to enough folks - be they students, 
researchers, purely experimenters, or pragmatists with specialized 'real world' 
(read 'commercial') applications not as well served with other tools.

Whether it [still | ever ] [does | did ] any/all of those things is a separate 
issue from mass popularity or 'growth'.

That said - I have not personally detected a particularly 'comfortable' level of 
  published evidence in that direction.

Even Vita Nuova's news releases seem few and far between, as if maintenance of a 
legacy base and a design-win every few *years* is all that is going on.

Bill