From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Sam To: <9fans@cse.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [9fans] Re: Future of Plan9 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 12:17:47 -0500 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 59616bba-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 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