Re: [9fans] Help for home user discovering Plan 9

[Jim Habegger <jimhabegger@gmail.com>]

Thanks to everyone for all the information and ideas!

At first I was going to try to make Plan 9 my all-purpose system on
this laptop, but for now it looks like I'll just be using it to learn
more about networking and distributed systems. I've tried using
virtual machines in Windows before to run other operating systems, and
I've always ended up installing them independently in their own
partitions, but I may have to use Plan 9 on a virtual machine if
that's the only way I can connect to our family network.

First I just want to get comfortable and develop some skills in the
Plan 9 environment, then experiment with distributing it between
computers or virtual machines.

Zhilkin, my wireless card is Atheros AR5001X+. Is there anything like
a diswrapper in Plan 9?

Pietro, thanks for the beginner's guide. I'm not sure I'll be able to
connect to the Internet with Plan 9 on its own partition, the way I'm
using it now. I might have to run it on a virtual machine, and it
might take some time for me to decide which one to use, and learn how
to do it. Meanwhile I'll have to learn to download and install
applications manually. I'll download them to my shared fat partition
in some other system, and install them into my Plan 9 system from
there.

My Internet socializing now is mostly:
- email
- calling people with Skype
- reading and commenting in blogs
- posting in my own blogs
- reading and posting in the Linux Questions forums
- reading and posting on this list
- Facebook

Devon, thanks for the links. I had started to read the network
configuration doc earlier, but I got stuck at the part where my card
is not supported. If I can't get around that, I might try using Plan 9
on a virtual machine in XP or Slackware or Debian. Pros and cons would
be welcome.

Andrés, thanks for the suggestion. I've tried to run systems on
virtual machines before, but I didn't like all the complications
involved and I always ended up installing them independently on their
own partitions. Maybe I won't be able to avoid virtual machines this
time. I might consider it an opportunity to enrich my knowledge and
experience, along with learning to use Plan 9.