Re: [9fans] What are you using Plan 9 for?

[Mart Zirnask <martzirnask@gmail.com>]

On 14/06/2018, Daniel Camoles <bigatojj@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Well I don't know if it solves your problem, but you could run openbsd from
>
> inside vmx, and then run a browser like chrome in there. Works perfectly.
> You probably could substitute openbsd for linux or other, vmx is fully
> functional.
>

+1, and there's also good old 9vx:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vx32

I'm typing this on a Thinkpad T42 with Tiny Core Linux and 9vx.

I'm reluctant to throw out technology that works and serves my basic
needs (and has IPS screen + good keyboard + quiet CF card in place of
hard disk), so this is the only computer I have.

I'm a part-time writer and radio producer with no CS background, so I
even use this machine for producing 1-hour radio shows for Estonian
Public Broadcasting. (Thank you, Non Daw!: http://non.tuxfamily.org).

I just love the "zen" of sam (and, occasionally, Acme) as a writing
tool. Also, the idea of "everything is a file" kind of grows on you,
intellectually.

P9P needed too much fiddling for Tiny Core Linux (and thus also broke
the simplicity and extreme minimalism of that Linux distro for me). So
I eventually opted for 9vx.

Tiny Core Linux boots into RAM, so Chromium and Firefox run
surprisingly fast on that old machine, for my occasional, mostly
"journalistic" needs. And it also has Dillo, which I've grown to love.

That said, I would switch to 9front + vmx immediately. (I even
conceptualized an awk-based "suite" for audio montage for Acme, using
the "everything is a file" paradigm".)

Unfortunately my Intel 2200bg wifi card doesn't seem to work in
9front. Has somebody maybe finished rsc's driver in the meanwhile?

I would also like to thank sl for all the 9artwork. I think this level
of aesthetics and intellectual humor is unmatched in the world of OS
"marketing"; this is probably what drew me in in the first place.

So 9front is an OS (isn't it?), but it's also a project of conceptual art. :)

Ah, also:
my dream machine would be a Alphasmart Neo device with BSD + sam -d:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AlphaSmart

Unfortunately, as I understand, porting BSD for that is not so easy.

Best,
Mart