Hey fans,
Here's the voice from the abyss.
Prelude:
Let me begin with something I have experienced in this community, and I
would like to shine some light on the effects of the mentality behind. I'll
be subtle.
Please read to the end, and I'm sure it will make you happy.
This first part mainly goes out to people assuming that I or anyone else
might be just too much "used to Linux": Nope, you're wrong, plain wrong.
Part 1: Where I am coming from
Let me explain. I am using machines to assist me with what I do, and if one
doesn't fit, I will change it. If the system doesn't offer what I need, I
will pick a different one. I have worked with all the major ones, be it
Windows, macOS, Linux or FreeBSD, and they all have their ups and downs. I
want mostly the ups, and I anticipate everyone does.
What I want is a decent desktop experience with no shenanigans, easy
software installation, no animations, no annoying OEM tray icons etc.. That
is what ruled out Windows and macOS for me. So I had FreeBSD and Linux
left. Except FreeBSD isn't FreeBSD and Linux isn't Linux, so we're
comparing pineapples and pomegranates here.
Now there are multiple graphics systems and desktop stacks to choose from,
the usual X vs Wayland and KDE vs GNOME vs Xfce vs maybe just i3/Sway
choice. I pick i3/Sway because it fits my needs, and that is where that
discussion ends. Coincidentally, they have strong roots in Plan 9, and they
did this one thing: improve a lot.
We even see ideas making their way back into Plan 9, e.g., with Lola. Tabs?
That is how I use i3/Sway! All windows in full size and tabbed, so that I
can set up a workspace ("desktop") with all I need there. I rarely tile,
and if I do, it will be something like editor + browser or editor + PDF
viewer so I see what my code changes.
So that's the way I roll, and everyone has their own way. And that's okay.
Now you may know that I've got a decade of experience in web development, a
field that exploded over the years, and I also acknowledge that many of you
simply hate it. Why though? Does user experience design discomfort you? I
do understand that a lot of the development is not perfect, and I also see
how a lot of the web has turned into ad platforms. We can easily agree that
those aspects need improving. So back to the OS.
Operating systems have made their journeys as well. Be it macOS, Windows or
Ubuntu as they are today having iterated over many concepts in terms of
widgets and interaction design, and BeOS famously having experimented a lot
in the realm of multimedia. The respin Haiku is close to a stable version
1.0. Let me cite from haiku-os.org:
"Haiku is an open-source operating system that specifically targets
personal computing. Inspired by the BeOS, Haiku is fast, simple to use,
easy to learn and yet very powerful."
And here goes the idea of "simplicity": It isn't simple nor easy to
*develop* those things, but the primitives are simple. On the other hand,
it is the developers' burden to deliver simplicity to the end user. Let's
keep that in mind: Missing out on a decent user experience creates tons of
complexity on the side of the user. Like, say, having tons of abbreviations
and little use of colors and such in 2025, in which we have 8k screens,
terabytes of storage, gigabytes of RAM, touch input, and tons of gadgets in
everyone's hands - that can change.
Part2: Where do I want to go with Plan 9?
The question now is what I am doing here. It's simple (pun intended).
I read that Plan 9 ought to be simple, and I want to see that work out. So
I look at it from a bunch of angles and see that it is quite different from
my expectation of simplicity. Though there is potential to get somewhere. I
think that would fit the spirit of the Bell Labs folks who started it all.
A lightweight system that can run on those many gadgets we now have?
Awesome, let's do that! I see a ton of potential in being able to, say,
drawterm / cpu into the tablet I hung up in my kitchen. The stock Android
is long defunct. Or the wristband I am wearing. Tiny SBCs that I can plug
into my laptop via USB. The small https://racklet.io/ cluster that I am
helping to build. Whatever wicked still may come!
So I have been working on hardware platform initialization firmware, this
project called oreboot (yes, without C), and boot loaders, that is,
LinuxBoot, and next, I want to bring up Plan 9. I mainly work on RISC-V
based platforms, now also a bit of Arm, and little x86.
With the experience in doing this, I paired up with Shawn to hack on
Moody's WIP port of 9front for RISC-V in QEMU. And I checked with Ron and
Ori if we can LinuxBoot into Plan 9 / 9front on x86 (might work again with
Ron's fix; I gotta retry!).
Over the last few days, I created a tool to convert Plan 9 a.out files to
ELF (amd64 so far, RISC-V WIP), and I added Plan 9 a.out support for RISC-V
to radare2. Those tools should help with the endeavor.
I would be very happy to see some more support. I can read quite a lot of
code, and I will have questions. Some I can answer myself with more or less
effort, and some which I can only work through with a lot of patience and
help.
Postlude:
Anyway, sorry for the very lengthy email. I am not much of an email person
anyway, so please bear with me should you reply and wait for my response.
Thank you! 🧡
With all that, have a good day!
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