[9fans] Re: Building GCC

[pavlovetsky@gmail.com]

On Jan 25, 4:32 pm, brant...@coraid.com (Brantley Coile) wrote:
> > On Jan 25, 2008 7:55 AM,  <pavlovet...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> it  really does not make any sense to write web browser from the ground
> >> up, if there is a workable version.
>
> > here we go again...
> > why use Plan 9 at all if every mainstream operating system is 'workable'?
> > i guess workable is not the point.
>
> > iru
>
> Plan 9 is not, and should not in my opinion, be a Linux
> replacment, Unix replacement, MS Windows replacement, and
> so on.  If you really want Plan 9 to dominate the world
> and see all your friends use it every day, invent a killer
> application for it.  That's the only way you can shove
> existing systems of their pedestals.  Making Plan 9
> exactly like Linux, or Windows, or son on, will not
> cause people to leave the real Linux or Windows and use
> Plan 9.  Lack of a browser is not why only the select
> few use Plan 9.  It's a culture thing.
>
> If you want Linux you know where to find it.

My main point was that there should be a sort of extension to the core
system in form of, say, linuxemu driven applications and/or ported
applications whatever their origins are. The important part is to keep
the core system independent of these ports. I like the idea behind
linuxemu even more, because there is nothing to port and sometimes you
have just binary without access to the code. This is "applications on
demand" model, when you have it the time you need it, locally. You use
application, get results, write them down and go as usual, in native
Plan 9 environment. Specifically to my situation, it sounds great.

Instead of putting mainstream applications and Plan 9 system in
different boxes and use network to get certain job done, I would like
to see Plan 9 system having elegant way to run non native binaries
when needed locally without integrating them into the core system.
This approach can be pursued either by hardware emulation, like QEMU
does, or by operating system kernel emulation, like linuxemu does,
putting kernel into userspace.

I agree about culture thing, as you put it, and I believe that the
world would be a better place if every computer science student be
given thorough course on it.