[9fans] Re: micro vs monolithic kernels

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

On Tue, 10 Apr 2001, Matt wrote:

> >What drudgery, we start our scripts and away it goes. There is a reason we
> >have a foosball table in the middle of our work area...;)
>
> is it not your years of experience as a computer administrator that wrote
> those scripts

And others don't have that experience to pass along to new users? Excuse
me but Plan 9 is what 12+ years old and there aren't any significant
automation efforts? Hmmmmm.....

I thank whichever of the Moirai that it's Open Source now and we'll see it
grow instead of stagnate in a 'research' environment.

My motivation had nothing to do with experience. It had to do with
psychology, doing computer maintenance is boring, dull, pointless work
and absolutely in no way, shape, or fashion, what I'm interested in
computers for. I absolutely hate to wash my car or mow my yard too.

> I bet the first time you installed Linux it didn't all happen in 30 minutes

I don't believe I said anything about anything taking '30 minutes'. It
takes somewhere between 2-4 hours depending on which OS we're speaking of.

I started using Linux in the .12 days. If memory serves the first time I
ever used Linux I loaded it on a CompuAdd 316NX laptop (a Samsung based
316SX machine) and we had it running in less time than a 8 hour shift (we
were working the 4-midnite shift). There was no reliable networking at
that point admittedly. Of course I'd already been using computers for more
than 20 years at the time. I believe it took me longer to get gcc working
than the OS.

If you've got a 1'st or 2'nd ed. "Running Linux" laying around look in the
appendix under d/l sites and look in the 512 area code for a system called
'Solar Soyuz Zaibatsu' (ie SSZ)...

> I'm not trying to negate your argument but it seems to me the benchmarks
> you are using are spurious.

What 'benchmarks'? I've simply made the statement that whether an OS is
'research' or 'production' (Don't know about 'spurious' but that
distinction is certainly specious from the sys admin POV - ALL systems
need sys admin attention) anybody with half a lick of sense will share
that experience with others coming down the road later. Well, they will if
they're not lone-gun's or wanting to use it as an IQ test (a very
popular past time apparently)...

Plan 9 is absolutely the most kick-ass OS I've seen and if I were going
to write one it would be quite similar to Plan 9. The only thing standing
in its way now is Plan 9 designers and users.

    ____________________________________________________________________

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