On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 12:47 AM, <lu...@proxima.alt.za> wrote: >Ron needed the > software and Ron got it, whatever it took him to achieve this. Can > you spot the difference?]
It's a bit more than that: I saw a need starting in 2000, with the initial open source release; I gave talks to anyone who would listen in DOE and five years later started to get money. Money is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Without people like Eric and Jim and Charles it would still be all just talk; we are lucky to have those smart people. It also takes a willingness, at times, to risk your job, which at least one person on this project has done over the last 3 years. It's a *LOT* of work to get to where we are now. It's also taken the determination of those at Bell Labs who were unwilling to let it all die. I admire their dedication. And we do have a sword hanging over our heads: we've got to get Plan 9 on the top 500 in 2009 or the DOE aspect of this may all go bust. So you're looking at 9 years (feels like 90!) of pushing on strings with a pretty hard deliverable next year. I do see a gradual uptick on this list of people who are finding ways to contribute, and that's good to see. And I also see a gradual realization in my community that Linux is not the End of History where kernels are concerned. BTW, 9vx is making a lot of new fans. The startup is just breathtaking and people get drawn in. This project might only have happened in DOE, which is a very open agency in these ways. It is unlikely that any other branch of the US Gov't would have funded this work -- certainly DARPA would not have. ron
