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Plan9 is now Officially Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-isn't-that-special dept.

DrSkwid writes "The OSI have approved the revised license for the plan 9 operating system according to attendees returning from this year's Usenix Bof."

6 of 399 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How long until? by thoolihan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know you're kidding, but this brings up an interesting question. IIRC, Dennis Ritchie worked on Plan 9. He also wrote the original Unix at Bell Labs. If he wrote certain functions similarly (as one would expect him to reuse code snippets he had successfully written before), could there be intellectual property issues. Could a company in SCO's position claim that he has to completely avoid writing anything that similar to the code he wrote for a previous company?

    Just a thought...

    -t

    --
    http://unmoldable.com W:"No one of consequence" I:"I must know" W:"Get used to disappointment"
  2. Long term, does this mean anything? by Jack+William+Bell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My first subject line was 'Cool', but then I changed it. Why? Well, I have been interested in Plan 9 for a long time. I especially like the services-based architecture. In many ways it is a project with an awful lot of potential. But...

    Problem 1: What is it good for? Right now Plan 9 has no compelling applications and a dearth of the applications most people use daily. This might be fixed soon as people port things like OpenOffice to it, but don't hold your breath.

    Problem 2: It is a research tool, and may never be more than that. Chances are, any truly compelling features in Plan 9 will soon find their way into Linux and even MS Windows.

    Problem 3: Overcoming the installed base. It took Linux nearly ten years to achieve name recognition, and it still is running a distant third on the desktop. What does Plan 9 offer that would make me, or you, want to spend time installing and learning it? Especially considerint Problem 2 and Problem 1.

    Problem 4: Wrong direction. In my opinion the real important projects right now are ones that are removing the distinctions between OSs. Cross platform tools like Python, Chandler, Mono and Mozilla. Using standards-based DHTML as the UI. Why add another platform to the mix when the real goal is to become platform agnostic?

    It all sums up to the same issues that squeak smalltalk has: Everything about it is great, but no-one uses it for anything real.

    Of course all these problems I describe are based on my opinions, needs and preferences. Your mileage may vary. But I be most people's won't...

    --
    - -
    Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
    1. Re:Long term, does this mean anything? by tuffy · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Problem 4: Wrong direction. In my opinion the real important projects right now are ones that are removing the distinctions between OSs. Cross platform tools like Python, Chandler, Mono and Mozilla. Using standards-based DHTML as the UI. Why add another platform to the mix when the real goal is to become platform agnostic?

      What good is being platform agnostic if all platforms are completely homogenous? Clearly Plan 9 isn't going to take over the world, but that was never the point. What is important is that the best aspects of Plan 9 can be incorperated into existing platforms like Linux and *BSD and generate some real innovation without too much disturbance to the existing software base. Because it sure looks like the deeper innovations coming out of Plan 9 are more helpful to me than the more superficial stuff coming from Gnome/KDE.

      --

      Ita erat quando hic adveni.

    2. Re:Long term, does this mean anything? by F2F · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Problem 1: What is it good for? Right now Plan 9 has no compelling applications and a dearth of the applications most people use daily. This might be fixed soon as people port things like OpenOffice to it, but don't hold your breath.

      it's good for research. an antidote to Systems Software Research is Irrelevant.

      Problem 2: It is a research tool, and may never be more than that. Chances are, any truly compelling features in Plan 9 will soon find their way into Linux and even MS Windows.

      Judging by how hard it is to bring Private Namespaces to Linux I can tell you that some of Plan 9's concepts will never make it back to UNIX. Some things in UNIX' design are just too hard to fix -- that's why Bell-Labs started this radical new OS (14 years ago).

      Problem 3: Overcoming the installed base. It took Linux nearly ten years to achieve name recognition, and it still is running a distant third on the desktop. What does Plan 9 offer that would make me, or you, want to spend time installing and learning it? Especially considerint Problem 2 and Problem 1.

      Plan 9 does not want to be a desktop OS but a research one. Its goal is not to crush Microsoft, it simply wants to fix the problems that cannot be easily fixed in UNIX today.

      Problem 4: Wrong direction. In my opinion the real important projects right now are ones that are removing the distinctions between OSs. Cross platform tools like Python, Chandler, Mono and Mozilla. Using standards-based DHTML as the UI. Why add another platform to the mix when the real goal is to become platform agnostic?

      to quote: "That's the good thing about standards -- there's so many to choose from"...

  3. Of Course by w.p.richardson · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Consider this analogue from the music industry:

    John Fogerty sued for sounding like John Fogerty!

    Fortunately, he won that case, but who knows how a similar case in the computer industry would turn out?

    --

    Curb CO2 emissions: Kill yourself today!

  4. Re:Open Source, only in US and Canda by russcox · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This is NOT true.

    We do IP address checks to make sure you're in a country that the U.S. allows us to export crypto to, and that is all.