From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:35:25 +0000 From: pavlovetsky@gmail.com Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable References: <4d6248ae1091c8fef1775a836839f7c1@coraid.com>, Subject: [9fans] Re: Building GCC Topicbox-Message-UUID: 34916bd4-ead3-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 We can not grip the system tightly and prescribe particular application and use of it; instead, we must allow people to use it for their own purposes. The more general the system, the better, and this is the UNIX principle. If someone wants to build an environment he feels comfortable with, but still, not leaving the splendid grounds of Plan9 - great! Doesn=B4t it? This is customisation. Personally, I would be happy as a child to see, say, web browser built using native environment and fully copliant. It never will be, though, for the simple reason - to be fully comliant, web browser must render flash content and Java Script as a minimum, but there are also many other web technologies, which are accessible through special, proprietary plugins. The Flash Player is proprietary and, as a shared library it is distributed for three mainstream operating systems and a couple industrial UNIX systems. You will never get it for Plan9 until it will become either standard industrial and/or mainstream. From the purist point of view it is bad, because system looses its original integrity, many flavours evolve and distasteful cruft appears. But, in the end, this is evolution. This is the only way to survive. The more people will use Plan9 the better, even if they do it in not so elegant way. It is senseless and impossible to reinvent every single weel. People must port things, it will strengthen the system.