i read the thread you posted. thanks it was interesting. i suppose i should have checked to see if such a thread was here already before starting a new one. whoops
i have been learning a lot about UNIX in the last few years, first when i went to school, and we had to program on solaris and irix. quick intro to the command line, telnet, gcc, java, emacs, vi. all the goodies. then a few years ago i started really fooling around with linux. i became interested in the theory of kernels (from a layman s perspective). i especially like the arguments of the microkernel vs the monolithic kernel. so you can imagine how great i thought it was when a year ago, apple replaced their OS with one that has an open source (approximately) microkernel, BSD underpinnings, and a cool appl frontend. i have been an apple user since the earliest days. and i really find a lot to like about the open source movement, which came into it s own with RMS and linus, but if you think about it, UNIX was the first open source OS: they licensed the entire source to whoever wanted it, and that is the main reason it grew to the popularity it did.
so my point is, i am learning to like the UNIX OS, and i have seen several of its manifestations, and it now runs on all my computers in some from or another. UNIX really seems to be the only sensible choice for an OS these days (i won t debate what form of UNIX), and i just want to talk a bit about what else there is besides UNIX.
there is a new OS out there that purports to be the successor of UNIX. created by the people who created UNIX (bell labs, and ken is on the team), but it s more like UNIX done right. not a UNIX derivative, but a new OS designed from the ground up, with networking, distributed computing and security in the design from square one.
i am speaking of plan 9, the new OS from the guys who brought us UNIX in the first place. i have heard from some people that know more than i, various things like: that it is way ahead of its time, that it is UNIX done right, finally, that it is the most advanced OS in the world (all due respect to OSX). i have looked at the
website, and it seems pretty neat. but i don t really understand why it should be considered so neat. rio looks cool, and glenda is sure cute though. is rio based on X? is it a new way of doing windowing? i don t know
i d like to try plan 9 on my machine one of these days. but it seems like you won t get much out of it by using it on a PC.
in the end i think that change will be very hard to bring about. i would like to think that the mach kernel will replace the linux kernel because of its merits, but mostly i know that the installed user base is going to be firmly entrenched, and the HURD will never make a dent. and i know that plan 9 will not oust UNIX from its niche either. there has to be some specific economic advantage or obvious incentive to change technologies. people usually don t change technologies willingly. that s my opinion anyway.
has anyone on this forum tried plan 9? right now, my hardware isn t supprted, but all i need is a new video card, and i think i will be good to go. i do want to try it. i have tried the HURD. don t really have much to say about that experience though. still looks like UNIX to me/
so what do you think of it? i considered making this question a new thread, but i suppose that wouldn t really be appropriate in a forum dedicated to OSX. (i don t understand why we have a windows forum here, either).
