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Plan 9 is a really, really bad comparison. If you really try Plan 9, you'll find a much better reason that it isn't as popular as it "should be": Absolutely no

by nknight 15y ago

Plan 9 is a really, really bad comparison. If you really try Plan 9, you'll find a much better reason that it isn't as popular as it "should be": Absolutely no one has done anything to make it easy to install or pleasant to use. I'd say it reminds me of Linux circa 1996, but that would be pretty damned insulting to Linux. There has never been a concerted effort to move Plan 9 beyond its roots as a research platform. The real world doesn't run on research platforms, and those of us trying to get real work done aren't going to invest our time in a research platform that needs enormous work to bring it up to a usable state.

cdcarter 15y ago
"Absolutely no one has done anything to make it easy to install or pleasant to use." You certainly didn't use nginx before it had any english documentation then.
- nknight 15y ago
  Uh, yeah, and neither did pretty much anybody else. nginx has only been of any significance for a few years. What's your point?
  - stdbrouw 15y ago
    I think his point is that NGINX gained in popularity even when its docs were still awful because the software was supposedly "just that good." Ergo, a bad first impression is an important part of getting software adopted but really good software can overcome that hurdle. The Mapnik GIS software (and the stack around it) used to be similar: a total pain in the ass to compile and configure, but people used it anyway because it was the best thing out there. Mind you, I think these are real exceptions, and don't agree with the implied idea that good software will thrive regardless of how hard it is to work with.
    - nknight 15y ago
      nginx doesn't exactly need much documentation, but it didn't get popular in spite of poor/absent documentation, somebody put in the effort to start writing documentation so a wider audience could put it to use. Nobody has put effort into Plan 9's usability (which, by the way, is a much bigger problem than documentation issues), which was my whole point.
- gizzlon 15y ago
  Nginx is a small-ish C program, not an operating system..
deleted 15y ago
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by nknight 15y ago

cdcarter 15y ago

"Absolutely no one has done anything to make it easy to install or pleasant to use." You certainly didn't use nginx before it had any english documentation then.

nknight 15y ago
Uh, yeah, and neither did pretty much anybody else. nginx has only been of any significance for a few years. What's your point?
- stdbrouw 15y ago
  I think his point is that NGINX gained in popularity even when its docs were still awful because the software was supposedly "just that good." Ergo, a bad first impression is an important part of getting software adopted but really good software can overcome that hurdle. The Mapnik GIS software (and the stack around it) used to be similar: a total pain in the ass to compile and configure, but people used it anyway because it was the best thing out there. Mind you, I think these are real exceptions, and don't agree with the implied idea that good software will thrive regardless of how hard it is to work with.
  - nknight 15y ago
    nginx doesn't exactly need much documentation, but it didn't get popular in spite of poor/absent documentation, somebody put in the effort to start writing documentation so a wider audience could put it to use. Nobody has put effort into Plan 9's usability (which, by the way, is a much bigger problem than documentation issues), which was my whole point.
gizzlon 15y ago
Nginx is a small-ish C program, not an operating system..

deleted 15y ago

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