Re: [9fans] What is it used for today?

[Ronald G Minnich <rminnich@lanl.gov>]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Matt J wrote:

> I've been reading some of the papers about plan9 and the FAQ's.  Having
> never actually used it before, what are people using it for today?  I
> think the concepts behind it are great, but don't see much use of it in
> the non-scientific community (like the average business).  Maybe it's
> not meant for business....  Thanks for your opinions...

It's totally useless for business. If you're running plan 9, you have no
way to propagate Outlook viruses, for example.

Also, it's very important that any business OS have a superuser that can
do anything, because that makes life so much more interesting for people
-- esp. the wrong people. With all this opportunity we can keep the script
kiddies off the streets. It also sells more "windows security for morons"
type books.

Finally, when programs like ISS run amok, you want them to have access to
everything, so they have more room in which to play. Windows is absolutely
ideal for this sort of thing.

Oh well, seriously, at the very least expect to see other OSes ripping off
Plan 9 ideas and then claiming to have invented them. I ripped off private
name spaces and 9P and plugged them into Linux a few years back (don't
worry I didn't claim to have invented them). I then hit the "but why do
you need that" wall. It's a hard concept to communicate (for me anyway).

But you're either going to see Plan 9 or Plan 9 ideas in business. Plan 9
(since it was open sourced) is finally going to get its due -- 10 years
late, but better that then never.  Two little things:  we can get rid of
16- and 32- bit UIDs and all that other Unix junk; we can kill superusers.

ron