Re: [9fans] There is no fork

[Lucio De Re <lucio.dere@gmail.com>]

On 2/12/18, Ethan Grammatikidis <eekee57@fastmail.fm> wrote:
> [ a neat rant I agree almost to the pixel with... ]

I (mostly) manage a (very small) team of younger programmers who only
really know Linux, and then the Debian or Ubuntu distros, almost
exclusively. My sentiments and Ethan's seem very similar.

I still compile all the NetBSD packages I install, sometimes at some
cost to my sanity, fully realising that my colleagues could not even
successfully install the necessary tools to do the same on Linux (I am
pressing them to use Go, it gives me an edge where they are unlikely
to  overtake my deeper knowledge - so that gets installed from
source).

I do believe the gospel of minimalism is hitting home though, because
I refuse to act as first line of defence, so by the time I'm willing
to help, their Humpty-Dumpty world lies shattered at our feet for me
to put together again. Not often enough, sadly.

Unfortunately, the difference between their "production" world and the
Plan 9 ecosystem is simply too big, they can't conceive of such
simplicity being viable and I can understand that. But there's a hint
of envy, even though there is so much Plan 9 does not support.

The message, of course, is that one should not need hundreds of
thousands of files deployed on a workstation and that there should be
packages to remove software, rather than install it. Who knows, that
may happen, one day.

Lucio.