MaxIBoy
May 5th, 2010, 10:36 PM
I got asked in this thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1470879) what I though of Plan 9 from Bell Labs. It turned out to be big enough for a whole new thread.
For those who don't know, Plan 9 was created by the same people who made UNIX in the first place. It's very UNIX-like, but it's improved in a number of ways. In many ways, it took a "back-to-the-basics" approach. Compared to UNIX-like operating systems, such as most (all?) Linux distros, it's a much better design. Unfortunately, it never caught on, so it's relegated to enthusiasts only these days.
So how is it? It's really, really fun to use. Plan 9 C is better than than ANSI C and even better than C99. The RC shell is missing out on some stuff I'm used to with Bash, but its overall design is so much cleaner and more well thought-out. In fact, the whole thing is clean and well thought-out. Even the much-maligned UI really *clicks* somehow. Everything about it, at least at first, seems exactly as it should be. It's like taking a stroll through an alternate universe where everything really is perfect.
What it has is perfect, but it's woefully short on many types of software. For example, the recommended way to do Web browsing on Plan 9 is by VNCing into a Linux or Windows box. How lame is that? But Abaco is pretty good, and Links is also pretty good. There are some excellent text editors for it (Sam, which is a sequel to Ed, and ACME, which is a bit like Emacs.) But word processing? You use markup languages and the like. There is no 3D acceleration available, and only minimal 2D acceleration is used. The only way to watch video on Plan 9 is to install the (limited and outdated) Plan 9 X-server and then run Mplayer in that. But there's no hardware video decoding supported.
What it has is perfect, but it's not without its quirks. There is no concept of "lines." The up-arrow scrolls up 1/3 of the screen without moving the cursor. This includes the text editor. The left-right arrow keys work as normal, but it's really designed for you to move the cursor around with the mouse. This includes the command-line. There is no command history feature. Instead, you scroll up and use the middle-click paste. Plan 9 does this very well. With practice, using the mouse with Plan 9 is faster than using the keyboard on any other OS I know of. But, lord, it takes some getting used to for a mere, imperfect mortal.
The window manager, Rio, has a really great design. While it's limited out of the box, it provides enough functionality that you can do workspaces and such with a minimum of RC scripting in your startup sequence. Window titles and stuff could be implemented by having each window contain two windows, one for the title and one for everything else (plus some C to tie it all together.) So overall, Rio gives you the tools you need to improve it. But applications are responsible for deciding on their own colors and font sizes, so theming could only be done by changing Rio itself.
I have never installed it on physical hardware. However, I do know that it works a LOT better in QEMU than in VirtualBox. 9VX is pretty cool, but I never got contrib (the advanced package manager) working on it.
For those who don't know, Plan 9 was created by the same people who made UNIX in the first place. It's very UNIX-like, but it's improved in a number of ways. In many ways, it took a "back-to-the-basics" approach. Compared to UNIX-like operating systems, such as most (all?) Linux distros, it's a much better design. Unfortunately, it never caught on, so it's relegated to enthusiasts only these days.
So how is it? It's really, really fun to use. Plan 9 C is better than than ANSI C and even better than C99. The RC shell is missing out on some stuff I'm used to with Bash, but its overall design is so much cleaner and more well thought-out. In fact, the whole thing is clean and well thought-out. Even the much-maligned UI really *clicks* somehow. Everything about it, at least at first, seems exactly as it should be. It's like taking a stroll through an alternate universe where everything really is perfect.
What it has is perfect, but it's woefully short on many types of software. For example, the recommended way to do Web browsing on Plan 9 is by VNCing into a Linux or Windows box. How lame is that? But Abaco is pretty good, and Links is also pretty good. There are some excellent text editors for it (Sam, which is a sequel to Ed, and ACME, which is a bit like Emacs.) But word processing? You use markup languages and the like. There is no 3D acceleration available, and only minimal 2D acceleration is used. The only way to watch video on Plan 9 is to install the (limited and outdated) Plan 9 X-server and then run Mplayer in that. But there's no hardware video decoding supported.
What it has is perfect, but it's not without its quirks. There is no concept of "lines." The up-arrow scrolls up 1/3 of the screen without moving the cursor. This includes the text editor. The left-right arrow keys work as normal, but it's really designed for you to move the cursor around with the mouse. This includes the command-line. There is no command history feature. Instead, you scroll up and use the middle-click paste. Plan 9 does this very well. With practice, using the mouse with Plan 9 is faster than using the keyboard on any other OS I know of. But, lord, it takes some getting used to for a mere, imperfect mortal.
The window manager, Rio, has a really great design. While it's limited out of the box, it provides enough functionality that you can do workspaces and such with a minimum of RC scripting in your startup sequence. Window titles and stuff could be implemented by having each window contain two windows, one for the title and one for everything else (plus some C to tie it all together.) So overall, Rio gives you the tools you need to improve it. But applications are responsible for deciding on their own colors and font sizes, so theming could only be done by changing Rio itself.
I have never installed it on physical hardware. However, I do know that it works a LOT better in QEMU than in VirtualBox. 9VX is pretty cool, but I never got contrib (the advanced package manager) working on it.