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Comment by lubutu | Hacker News Reader

It very much depends on what you want to do. But yes, you can certainly do things with Plan 9. Ruling out Plan 9 because it does run a certain language, or doesn't run Postgres, is like ruling out Linux because it can't run Microsoft Office. It is intended for a different purpose. Also note that Coraid use Plan 9 in a lot of their systems, to do real work (specifically SANs).

Edit: Also, Plan 9 has HTTP servers, CIFS support, central authentication (factotum), etc. I suggest you Google them.

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I gave a list of things I want to do. The typical server stuff 99% of unix-like systems are used for. I am not ruling out plan 9, I am asking what it can be used for. Why do people keep insisting on deliberately misrepresenting a question as a criticism?

I know plan 9 has factotum, but "google it" sure doesn't help me find a way to use it to authenticate windows clients. Or authenticate anything other than plan 9 for that matter. Aquarela doesn't even claim to work, and it is actually much worse in practice than it claims to be. And it can't be part of a domain can it?

I'm not trying to be critical here, but when I ask "what can I actually do with plan 9?" I am genuinely interested in a serious answer. Stuff like "well there's an unsupported kinda buggy thing that doesn't actually do what you need anyways" is just a less honest way of saying "you can't use it for anything".

As I said, Coraid uses it for SANs. The question you're asking is equivalent to "Windows can play games, why doesn't Linux have any games?" Some of the things you might do with Unix Plan 9 cannot do. However, the reverse is also true.

You seem to seem to be looking for "an alternative to Unix." If that is the case, Plan 9 probably isn't what you're looking for. It is, however, useful in ways that Unix is not. It probably won't replace your specific Unix needs, though it largely replaces mine. Hope that clears that up.

Except I asked the question in response to someone offering up plan 9 as though it were an alternative to modern unix-like systems. Taking the question out of context will inevitably make your response pointless. If someone said "windows crashes too much when I am playing games" and someone else said "linux never crashes" in response, then it would be perfectly reasonable to expect the linux guy to explain how to play games on linux.

Since plan 9 largely replaces your unixy needs, could you share with me what those needs are, so I can try to get a better idea of what I might be able to use it for. I am not looking for an alternative to unix, I am looking for any practical way I can put plan 9 to use, rather than just tinkering with it on an old spare machine for fun.

You can play with it. You can write little programs and compile them. You can poke around its everything is a file filesystem. Your question is like "what can I do with a slinkie?"

Even openbsd can do more than that! (are you even still involved with openbsd?). Seriously though, people keep acting like plan 9 is a practical alternative to a unix-like system, and I would love for that to be true. So, I am asking for someone to show me how I can use it that way. If those people are full of it, that's an ok answer. But it isn't my fault people are offering up the slinky as an alternative when someone complains their xbox 360 rrod'ed.

I don't think people are suggesting plan9 is a practical alternative. They're just saying it's worth studying and understanding. If people advocate using plan9, it's because understanding comes from experience.

I took dexen's original post to be suggesting it as a practical alternative. Reading it over again, it still looks like he is suggesting it as a practical alternative. Perhaps he was being sarcastic and I missed the point.

He's saying if you want to see what real unix looks like, look at plan9. There's nothing in his post to suggest real unix is useful. :)

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