Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

scarletxfi · 2010-07-27 05:30:41

Doing some research, i bumped into it.. it's looks like an interesting system..

I'll be writing a full review sometime (when I have time...)

sand_man · 2010-07-27 06:51:12

I want to but it didn't play well with VirtualBox the last time I checked. Apparently it does work with qemu though.

upsidaisium · 2010-07-27 07:02:33

Plan 9 is the sort of thing that is interesting to read about. But is it actually useful? Who knows. Usefulness isn't always necessarily the goal of research projects like Plan 9..

Vamp898 · 2010-07-27 07:35:21

I dont want to feel like im in 1980 when i use my computer.

I know design isn´t that important but.... c´mon

splittercode · 2010-07-27 07:47:24

From the little I've read, the concept behind it seems really appealing, brilliant actually, but I've never tried it. I'm not sure if I'm correct, but my understanding is that it's not designed to be used on a single home computer though, but rather in a distributed setting connected to centralized servers that handle many operations(cpu intensive processes, data storage, etc). Apparently you can run multiple virtual machines on one computer to simulate this, though I don't think that's what Bell intended at all. Seems like it would be really well suited for an academic/research/business setting where lots of people are using the same applications to do the same types of things. I don't really understand how/why it would be used as a personal/home OS. Perhaps I'm wrong though.

Interesting, but superficial side note: The 9wm window manager available in the AUR supposedly mimics pretty closely the real plan9 window manager. Judging by the fact that it has only 5 votes... I'm guessing it's not that great.

Ramses de Norre · 2010-07-27 07:58:38

Hmm, is has no web browser yet...

upsidaisium · 2010-07-27 08:10:15

Ramses de Norre wrote:

Hmm, is has no web browser yet...

That's not true, is it..? There's abaco, and I think another one based on the web browser for Inferno. Plan 9 may not have Firefox or Opera, but it's certainly not impossible to browse the web on Plan 9.

SoleSoul · 2010-07-27 09:19:05

I've read many good things about Plan 9's innovation and cool features to I decided to give it a spin, I installed Plan 9 on my custom built Pentium 4 HDD.
It worked, but that's it for me. I mean, the screen came up but now what? I have nothing to do with it. It's graphical but doesn't behave like other desktop environments. I don't say it's not interesting but unless you know what to expect on screen it just looks weird because it's so different.
You can download a live CD (yes, they have one) and see for yourself.
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html

Anikom15 · 2010-07-27 18:07:34

Plan 9 from Bell Labs is cool, but unfortunately is stuck in obscurity. It's so obscure no one can really develop on it even they wanted to.

Such the fate of most research operating systems....

fsckd · 2010-07-27 20:05:18

Even though Plan 9 never gained popularity, it has been a huge influence on other OSes.

Anikom15 · 2010-07-27 20:18:41

Yes, we got UTF-8 and proc from it (and other stuff I'm sure).

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-27 05:30:41

Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#2 2010-07-27 06:51:12

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#3 2010-07-27 07:02:33

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#4 2010-07-27 07:35:21

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#5 2010-07-27 07:47:24

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#6 2010-07-27 07:58:38

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#7 2010-07-27 08:10:15

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#8 2010-07-27 09:19:05

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#9 2010-07-27 18:07:34

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#10 2010-07-27 20:05:18

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

#11 2010-07-27 20:18:41

Re: Has anyone tried Plan9 (from Bell)?

Board footer