This is the sexiest plan 9 shot I’ve seen, insanely cool OS
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machine: ThinkPad T420
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os: ⑨front
- auth+cpu+file on encrypted
cwfs
- auth+cpu+file on encrypted
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programs:
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clock
For those interested in learning more about Plan 9 and trying it out in a public environment: SDF Public Access UNIX System is hosting their seasonal Plan 9 Boot Camp starting June 20th. Feel free to drop into
com
and say hello!You’re running Plan9 on real hardware???
How’s it faring?
But of course! Real hardware or bust.
This particular machine has been my daily driver for months now, so I would say it is faring quite well.
Do you browse on this?
Indeed.
9front comes with two browsers out of the box:
abaco
andmothra
. There is also a port of NetSurf as well as both gopher and gemini browsers.Nice! I think I’m gonna follow that footstep.
something you can’t do or any inconvenience on this system?
Oh sure, lots of things are “inconvenient” on Plan 9.
Of note for most would-be users: if you rely on a modern web browser like Firefox/Chrome, forget about it. Never going to happen.
It’s important to remember that Plan 9 is fundamentally a research operating system; it’s not really a “typical” environment by any stretch, and that stems largely from it being entirely network-based and distributed. A single Plan 9 system in isolation can only be so interesting. Using it on a laptop like this can be an entirely different set of problems.
If you’d like some examples of things you may face:
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booting can be slow
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can be intimidating to set up for some of the more important features –
factotum(4)
andsecstore(1)
, new users and directories under/
, etc. -
cwfs
is slow -
hjfs
is really slow -
no multi-monitor support
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only recently did we get a filesystem that specifically aims to be crash-safe
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poor documentation, though it’s been getting better
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reading research papers is basically a requirement for understanding the system
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security is not a priority
For me, though? I genuinely don’t need much more than what’s available in the base system.
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The wallpaper is awesome. And everything else looks quite unique, pretty and usable
What is Plan9? Is is an OS… or a kernel… or a set of utilities? I’ve been sorta interested in it in the past, but have no idea where to start.
Plan 9 is a research operating system developed by Bell Labs as a successor to UNIX.
I would suggest starting somewhere like here to get an idea of what it’s about, as well as checking out this video from one of 9front’s core contributors.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.