From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <13426df10907181059u192b75a6tefb37e56e3772f5@mail.gmail.com> References: <4A61E5CE.7080809@tecmav.com> <509071940907180925n74b32681oa54f0e46e1354ac6@mail.gmail.com> <5d375e920907180959p1a7630eaj4d089c750b803e5f@mail.gmail.com> <13426df10907181059u192b75a6tefb37e56e3772f5@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:29:29 -0500 Message-ID: From: Eric Van Hensbergen To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [9fans] Question about Plan9 project Topicbox-Message-UUID: 260ee580-ead5-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Sat, Jul 18, 2009 at 9:59 AM, Uriel wrote: > >> Plan 9 is *not* an open source project > I once attended a talk where a statement was made about open source projects being defined by their ability to fork in non-destructive manners as a sort of evolutionary response. Plan 9's source code is available, and anyone that thinks they can do a better job is welcome to fork it, repackage the distribution, mirror it, support it, and so forth. People will naturally flock to better solutions. This is the very heart of open source. Conforming to Google's idea of open source, or the Linux Community's model, or the GNU religion is in no way essential to open source. What is essential is that the community works out what works best on its own and evolves through forking and merging and different approaches which work best at different times. Forks are already in place. Inferno is very much a fork of Plan 9, Octopus is a fork of Inferno. Brucee has his own fork (or perhaps forks?) of Inferno. p9p and 9vx are also forks after a fashion. These forks often contribute fixes and improvements back to respective parents, and some times they don't. The secret plan 9 super secret society fork is yet another evolution, actually primarily motivated by bitter, disruptive, and ultimately destructive community members. All things are valid, evolution only moves forward with action. We have our fork, we are proceeding with it as we best see fit -- that's our prerogative. Unhappy? Restless? Bored? Go forth and fork -- IMHO, this is a research operating system, its here to play with, learn and explore. If you aren't interested in those things, you'll be disappointed or worse. -eric