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> Modern networking and distributed systems would be a LOT nicer today if Plan 9 had taken off in the 90s. But it didn't take off. That's already decided. It
by rdtsc 8y ago
> Modern networking and distributed systems would be a LOT nicer today if Plan 9 had taken off in the 90s.
But it didn't take off. That's already decided. It wasn't enough. One can say well if it happened 10 years earlier maybe, it would have taken off. Or if Linux never happened. But it's speculative.
Heck, Plan 9 source is there. If so much economic benefit can be derived, why hasn't it become a dominant player. It had been around enough time, and there are enough developers around to have flocked to it and make it overtake Linux by now.
> I think the economic benefit over today's state of affairs would have been massive,
I think we already reaping enormous benefits open source licensing model in general. We live in a world where you can download production grade operating systems, databases, compilers, libraries for free and also inspect their source. That is often taken for granted and is incredible compared to who it used to be.
- yepguy 8y agoI can't really disagree with most of your post. The reason Plan 9 or its ideas can't be resurrected very easily now is because every machine on the internet has to pretend to be UNIX and speak a thousand ad-hoc protocols. UNIX's many flaws have been papered over, one by one, by incredible brute force (instead of in one fell swoop). I'm only lamenting the fact that the 90s were a crucial period in the development of the commercial internet, and in another timeline it could have developed in a very different direction.