Introduction to Plan 9
6 days ago
- #research
- #operating-systems
- #unix
- Plan 9 is a research operating system developed by the same group that created UNIX at Bell Labs.
- It emerged in the late 1980s as an attempt to push UNIX ideas further into networking and graphics.
- Plan 9 is described as a distributed computing environment with terminals, CPU servers, and file servers.
- Key ideas in Plan 9 include per-process namespaces and everything being represented as a file.
- Plan 9 has several derivatives and forks, including 9front, Plan 9 from User Space, and Inferno.
- Plan 9 is not UNIX and avoids past prejudices, focusing on simplicity and new territory.
- Plan 9 from User Space (plan9port) ports Plan 9 libraries and applications to UNIX-like systems.
- Inferno is a distributed OS sharing some ideas with Plan 9 but is a completely different system.
- Plan 9 has been released under various licenses, causing confusion and controversy.
- The Plan 9 Foundation re-licensed historical editions under the MIT License in 2021.
- Plan 9 continues to have a niche following, with active communities and forks like 9front.