Re: [9fans] Re: Future of Plan9

[Sam <sah@softcardsystems.com>]

I hate to even respond to the banter coming out of Austin
these days, but corrections must be made.

> -	Not a single other user group exists (it's ok, Hangar 18 has
> 	folks in several cities around the US). -NO- other efforts
> 	are extant outside of Hangar 18.

I'm in a local 9 users group in Athens, GA which I run.  I've gone to the
local linux user group showcase - attendance might reach 500 all day - and
hosted a table for 9 and inferno.  My experience was that technically
saavy people (read: contemporary system administrators) were curious and
impressed with simple things like bound directories and ftpfs, but
generally lost interest by the time i got around to acme.  The
"enthusiasts" didn't get it at all, and really didn't like the GUI.
Conclusion?  It's hard for non-programmers to see the beauty in 9.

>
> -	There are no(!!!) introductory documents for new users (don't
> 	worry, Hangar 18 is working on that now.
>

If you would like someone to proof them for grammar and spelling
errors, please let me know.

>
> course part of the problem is that many of the developers have never
> really embraced the concept of Open Source and what that means to them
> individually, let alone having any interest in distributed computing
> outside of getting their name plastered on some source tree somewhere
> that will be admired by some small closed community. Bruised ego indeed.
>

The modest programmer does not need to parade and showcase
each of h(is|er) accomplishments, especially to an audience
whose immediate response will be, "Cool!  Can you port that
to linux?"

If you sit down and rationalize out the percentages of
people who would appreciate, say, linux for its
"advantages" (Desktop WIMP style software, familiar
Unixish underpinnings, and virtual system administratorless
installation and operation) vs. 9 and hers it shouldn't
come as a surprise that 9's user base is a rat pack
of modest programmer curmudgeons.  Moreover, it isn't
the job of the developers to promote the software
in a public arena.  You're clearly one of the few
non-programmers in the group and as such it's your
responsibility to bridge the gap.  You guys can
do the work of bringing it to the people while
the curmudgeons keep building things like Fossil.

Please, stop with the baseless manic insults.  I
sure hope you started this rant with the troll about
plan 9's future because if not, you've likely scared
off somone who genuinely was interested; I hope it's
rather obvious this effect is converse to your goal.

Cheers,

Sam