[9fans] questions about 9atom and 9legacy; and their updates

[Rudolf Sykora <rudolf.sykora@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I've been recently reconsidering employment of
plan9. And (probably like many others) I find myself
indecisive about whom to follow. It seems that the
most conservative option is Bell Labs (BL). Then, still in
sync, there is 9legacy. Slightly separate there is 9atom,
and finally there is 9front. The latter two probably
live on their own. The questions that arise:

1) How often does Bell Lab's version change? How often/well
do patches from 9legacy enter BL's version? Some numbers?

2) How do 9atom and 9legacy notice that there has been
a change in BL? (I'd guess that 9legacy could notice
immediately, but ...) How is it with 9atom?

3) How is updating supposed to work in case of 9atom
and 9legacy (as compared to BL's replica) I.e., when
I decide to use either 9atom or 9legacy and at some
point there is some change in them, will I / can I
easily notice and follow?

4) Is there any good reason not to follow 9atom, but
BL instead?

5) I am puzzled about licences. At one point I almost
thought that the software is actually BSD-like
(i.e. you can do almost whatever, no copyleft,
Lucent Public License Version 1.02). Now I read:

    In February 2014 the University of California, Berkeley, has been
    authorised by the current Plan 9 copyright holder – Alcatel-Lucent
    – to release all Plan 9 software previously governed by the Lucent
    Public License, Version 1.02 under the GNU General Public License,
    Version 2

so the mentioned univesity will offer it under GPL, which is viral
(is copyleft). That surprises me...

Thanks for your comments!

Ruda