Re: [9fans] Is the vanilla Plan 9 still alive?

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

BTW, I miss SSH a lot more often than I miss a browser when using
legacy Plan 9. It keeps being what I would port from 9front
immediately if I simply had the skills, the time and the persistence.

There are one or two more things that may only pop up once caffeine
has had its impact on my rather slow brain. I am very extremely
grateful for 9legacy, even though I don't really understand what is
and what is not possible using it, so I stick to my own modified
version of Plan 9 which occasionally leaps from one antiquated host to
anotherless antiquated one and were I at total leisure, my dream would
be of threading into that, in a repeatable experiment, all the useful
imported beads (from 9legacy, 9front and 9atom, more or less in that
priority sequence) that I would deem appropriate for 2019 and the
future.

But there are many directions to take and only one that this mailing
list's membership would find it convenient to support. Such a standard
(that I had recently named 9heritage in my personal notes) will need a
lot of contributing by people who are willing to collaborate where
they are instead tempted to compete, to follow when they instead wish
to lead.

Keep in mind that I live in a country that has unofficially declared
my kind "colonials of a special kind" to pamper to a majority that is
split in nine cultural groups (plus a few less despised minorities)
whose resentment towards whites is their only binding force. I have
personal experience of where competing interests lead and of how hard
it is to promote common interests in their place. Plan 9 right now is
in a similar place, mostly through a similar lack of respected
leadership, if my political opinion is to be trusted.

Lucio.

PS: Is Ori's Git and a plethora of "git forks" (I see that Git itselfs
calls them "heads", how appropriate!) the way to go? I can see some
merit in stripping Labs' system down to the bone and fleshing it up
from the bottom (or is that the top) with the best the community has
already contributed. In 24 years, this has not happened, what is most
likely to do it today?

PPS: I think it was Hiro that contrary to expectations sang the praise
of Richard's Raspberry PI developments and opened one more interesting
door for me. It is precisely these pearls (both Hiro's and Richard's)
that keep me a perhaps undeserving 9fan.

On 11/25/19, Lucio De Re <lucio.dere@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/24/19, Ori Bernstein <ori@eigenstate.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, 24 Nov 2019 08:34:32 +0200, Lucio De Re <lucio.dere@gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> We just got a mouthful from sl and you about the lack of explanation
>>> for the state  of the various plan 9 "distributions". It all smacks of
>>> expecting Da Vinci to update the Mona Lisa because somebody would
>>> prefer a high-rise landscape in the background and because someone
>>> actually did photoshop the Mona Lisa in that guise, but was not
>>> accepted as the most significant contributor to the painting.
>>
>> I'm not sure that analogy serves the purpose intended.
>>
>> The Mona Lisa is something sitting in a museum for
>> people to gawk at a bit before getting on with their
>> day to day business, using tools that they either
>> adapt to their needs, or replace with ones that are
>> already suitable.
>>
> Having grown up in the country that spawned many Mona Lisa thieves, I
> simply disagree with your evaluation, Ori. That is no reflection of
> the worth of your contribution(s), just a cultural chasm between the
> two us.
>
> And having spent a week visiting Florence (sorry, can't resist
> first-hand anecdotes), I can see both your more pragmatic point of
> view and my own interest in archaeology. I would like to persuade you
> otherwise, but maybe that will happen to you without my help.
>
> Until then (a) I'll be happy but cautious to help you bring the ONE
> Plan 9 to term and will provide all resources at my disposal to do
> that and (b) will continue to ensure that the reasons and rationales
> for Plan 9 are not lost in the quest for Shiny New Features.
>
> 9p.io is a museum piece, I grant, let it stay. If the Mona Lisa or the
> Lamborghini Miura or some similar monuments to human creativity do not
> appeal to you, let me appeal to you on behalf of those who feel like
> me, so that you do not contribute to their destruction.
>
> In my opinion and my philosophy, without history there is no future. I
> can see how that may seem pointless to some, at least for a time.
>
> Lucio.
>


-- 
Lucio De Re
2 Piet Retief St
Kestell (Eastern Free State)
9860 South Africa

Ph.: +27 71 471 3694
Cell: +27 83 251 5824