4 ms·

Best quote: "I don't think [Linux] will be very successful in the long run."

• rascul 3y ago
  He seems to have changed his mind a couple decades later. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35198697 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35198697
  • saghm 3y ago
    His prediction is in response to a question asking if Linux is "following in the tradition" of Unix, and immediately after, the conversation turns towards a discussion of his (at the time ongoing) work on Plan 9. "Changed his mind" seems like a kind of weird phrasing to me because Linux being more successful than Plan 9 in 2023 isn't a matter of opinion, it's a recognition of reality.
    • lagniappe 3y ago
      fwiw I think the future would have been better on Plan9.
      • tazu 3y ago
        I agree. I went through a phase with Acme and truly loved the UX/DX.
      • pjmlp 3y ago
        I rather look forward to what Inferno could have been, nowadays Android is the closest to it.
• johnnyjeans 3y ago
  After having gotten familiar with Plan 9, I would have thought this at the time too, because it's a better system for the modern world in every single way imaginable than any Unix ever will be. Unfortunately, he did not account for the fact that adoption isn't based on rational processes. The market is not a meritocracy. Maybe if Plan 9 was released as FOSS in the 90s and somebody made an aggressive push to give it gas in some hacker circles, history would have taken a different path. But that didn't happen and so we live in a broken future. At least 9front is usable for a daily driver these days, I suppose.