From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <7d3530220607242001p66205b72ycb22c85c7afc1e1@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:01:23 -0700 From: "John Floren" To: "Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs" <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] Re: 9fans Digest, Vol 27, Issue 52 In-Reply-To: <20060725025030.GE6226@augusta.math.psu.edu> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20060724160009.A640A5AF70@mail.cse.psu.edu> <53f976bd0607240938i79313aa5nf6e33e176868a2bb@mail.gmail.com> <44C51F7A.4050604@lanl.gov> <20060725025030.GE6226@augusta.math.psu.edu> Topicbox-Message-UUID: 8beee728-ead1-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On 7/24/06, Dan Cross wrote: > 0) A browser. > 1) Some office suite application or applications. Sure, *I* can edit > my documents in sam or acme and do markup using troff or tex or > some other such thing, but you ever try emailing a troff document > to a non-technical colleague? Or one who comes from a Windows only > background? These are the same people who may email me an MS word > document with embedded graphics, or a PowerPoint presentation, or > an Excel spreadsheet. Or a Visio graphic. > You get the picture; I can control the format of the output I > produce output, and thus can get away with using Plan 9. But I > can't control others, who may send me something I need to see, read, > watch or listen to, but can't do so under Plan 9. > 2) An IM client (I worked at a job where we used AIM for internal company > communications; actually, two of my jobs used it. Believe it or not, > it was highly effective. Sure, the protocol sucks, but we could "talk" > to one another on a daily basis). > 3) I use Mathematica a lot. That's critical for me. > 4) I hate to say it, but sometimes I need C++, or Objective-C, or any > number of other languages that I just don't have either compilers or > interpreters for under Plan 9. > 5) Any number of players of various multimedia formats. > 6) A mail client that can do GnuPG or OpenPGP or whatever. > 7) Any number of other applications.... This appears to be quite a complete list. I second everything on the list, with the inclusion of some other apps (circuit design stuff). IM is important, because it's the best way to reach my friends. Media players--huge. I love my media. On the same note, some decent filesharing interfaces would be good, like Direct Connect. Wonder how that could be implemented the Plan 9 Way? Allow searching by grepping a file, and have all the clients mapped in a directory tree? Hmm. Although I like the acme mail client and even find 'mail' useful, I could really do with something beefier before making the switch--I'm gonna do the bad thing and utter the words "Thunderbird-like" Well, there's MY 2 cents, take it or leave it. John -- TANSTAAFL! (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch!)