bubstance

DECSYSTEM-2065

The front fell off.

DO NOT INSTALL!

If you ever want to just poke around a Plan 9 system, SDF Public Access UNIX System offers an ongoing Plan 9 Boot Camp.

Stop by and join us in com sometime!

Additionally, for those that may want a Plan 9 that’s being actively developed and will actually work on modern hardware:

https://9front.org

There’s also 9legacy, which is basically “classic” Plan 9 with some patches from 9front.

I use it because it’s truly a “complete system” in a way that Linux and even the BSDs are not—every program is an example in itself and it comes with a ton of various scratch-built utilities that you don’t usually find as part of a typical Linux distro. Stuff like a basic torrent or IRC client just sort of fall out of the way Plan 9 is organized and implemented.

It also provides me with a distraction-free environment and a set of tools that I enjoy using, even if some aspects of Plan 9 as, say, a laptop daily driver are inconvenient or awkward. It really is better suited for networked computing.

I was pretty much sold from first contact because Plan 9 is the way that I feel best matches what I’ve always wanted from my machines: a simple grid of networked appliances where I can route the various resources and hardware in whatever way I require.

It is called rio(1) and it comes with Plan 9.

There is a Unix/X11 port that contains most of the Plan 9 userspace—including a version of rio—called plan9port.

It is not nearly as good as using the real thing.

In #cat-v? Not regularly. I mostly hang out in gridchat with a handful of the 9front people.

I already do.

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

That’s not a photo of Dennis Ritchie, that’s Brian Kernighan.