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Thats right.
However the rest of the world use "hacker" the way the Jargon File defines cracker. For the common man hacker = cracker. So having a "hackers and crackers" list might make sense if they think crackers and hackers are the same.
Though they messed this list completly up. Stallman and Dennis Ritchie are not "crackers" and does defintly not belong in the same list as crackers.
Aleph - Supposedly Dennis Ritchie favourite language

Yes, indeed. See the Plan9 FAQfrom comp.os.plan9.

• AROS
  
• Virtual Acorn (an emulator but which emulates an OS, indeed)
  
• MenuetOS
  
• Debian GNU/Hurd
  
• Plan9
  

Funny, I remember back in 1984, a new computer came around. The Amiga had a handful of custom designed chips (running concurrently with the CPU) to handle display, I/O, animation, audio. You could actually move the mouse arount without seeing the CPU loosing cycles. Maybe the industry is finally moving a bit closer to this design which, back then, simply made sense... and still does.

Now add to this an OS that can be distributed accordingly to the type of operations operations (like Plan 9) and over multiple CPUs (Apple OS X, or Linux), with a solid filesystem (get the ideas from BeOS)...

Also, I don't want to upgrade my CPU anymore, I want to add CPU power to what I already have. Give me a scaleable hardware architecture (with a lot of empty CPU slots), with the OS supporting it. Add a 'cheap' factor. THIS would be my ideal computer... for now! ;-)

From the Plan 9 FAQ:

The Plan 9 release is available for free download at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/download.html
It includes source of the kernel, libraries, and commands for all supported architectures. It also includes complete binaries for the x86 architecture.


Regarding implementation: You can be the judge of whether this sounds like a good idea:


Subject: What GUIs does it support?
The standard interface doesn't use icons or drag-n-drop; Plan 9 people tend to be text-oriented. But the window system, the editor, and the general feel are very mousy, very point-and-click: Plan 9 windows are much more than a bunch of glass TTYs. The system supports the graphics primitives and libraries of basic software for building GUIs.
A screenshot is available at http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/screenshot.ht ml

Subject: How do I cut and paste with a 2 button mouse?
Plan 9 really works well only with a three-button mouse. In the meantime, Shift-Right-button will simulate a middle button, but that is inadequate for Acme's chording.

I predict that there will never be a revolutionary new operating system until we break free of the chains imposed by Posix compliance. Until then, we're stuck with files that have to be streams of bytes, ugo-style permissions, non-wandering processes, incompatable RPC calls, &c.

And the real pain is there have been OS'es that have had simple & elegant solutions to problems that are hard under unix (Aegis, Multics, VMS, TOPS, ...) that were pushed aside by the steamroller that is Unix.

But to be fair, many of the forgotten O/S's are now forgotten because they weren't as general purpose as Unix. Unix is the great compromise. But it's hard to strive for the best when you've already accepted compromise.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned how close some of this sounds to Plan 9. Heck, if Microsoft wants to bring distributed computing to the OS masses, and get databases off of a single source (like .NET) I say be my guest.

Plan 9 has "union directories" : directories made of several directories all bound to the same name. The directories making up a union directory are ordered in a list. When the bindings are made (see bind (1)), flags specify whether a made (see bind (1)), flags specify whether a newly bound member goes at the head or the tail of the list or completely replaces the list. To look up a name in a union directory, each member directory is searched in list order until the name is found. A bind flag specifies whether file creation is allowed in a member directory: a file created in the union directory goes in the first member directory in list order that allows creation, if any.

Plan 9 is not a new project and it isn't even *nix. There is a faq that tells all about it. Tom.

• U+1D000..U+1D0F5 - Byzantine Musical Symbols
• U+1D100..U+1D1DD - Western Musical Symbols

FYI, other Unicode editors for Unix are available, e.g. yudit. Good luck!

Speaking of High Availability clusters, , check out this site

I'm also quite keen on clustering, so when I'm back at my PC I'll rummage through my bookmarks and post some more links...

Off the top of my head, I also remember Cplant...

Then, there is Plan 9... Do check out their "Related Links" section!

Trian

The distributed OS from Bell labs, Plan 9 seems to fit the bill for big iron more suitably than Hurd.