Re: [TUHS] Plan 9 from outer space ?

[Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>]

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On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 11:24 AM Pierre DAVID <pdagog@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 06:20:18PM +0100, Richard Tobin wrote:
> >> There is a widespred anecdote that "Plan 9" name comes from the
> >> movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space".
> >
> >Given that the full name is "Plan 9 from Bell Labs" I don't think
> >there's much doubt about it.
> >
>
> Yes, but is there anything besides the name?
>

Plan 9 is the worst movie ever. And was for many years listed as the worst
movie ever, including the formative years of plan 9.

A professor(?) at CU once told me, though I don't know if I buy it, that
plan 9 was Unix Plan B at first. There was a description that it was the
worst system ever (except for all the others) in a knod to Churchill
(supposedly based on his comment about Democracy). And from there it was a
quick jump to Plan 9 from Bell Labs as all these themes flowed together in
a mish-mash of creative naming...  With a different name, it could break
with Unix in interesting ways...

I have no clue if this is true, and I'm no longer in contact with the
professor that told me this since it was mid to late 90s, and I'm honestly
having trouble recalling his name. It wasn't a 'big name' like Evi, but I
think it was someone at CU I had a beer with (which means it could have
been a grad student to post-doc as well, it was 25 years ago and beer was
involved). It makes a great story, but I don't know if it's anything more
than that. I put it out there because I know Rob or Ken is likely to
correct something that's this detailed and specific if it's really wrong :)

Warner

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