Reasons to use plan9     06/02/21
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I figured I couldn't determine why I should or shouldn't use 
plan9, until I had used it for a while on hardware. VMs are 
good and fine, and I use them all the time, but they're not 
intimate enough for me.

So, here I am, using plan9 on hardware. I suppose it's been 
a week or so, I haven't looked. I've got the thing working 
well enough, and I'm comfortable enough with the system that 
things are making sense and I'm not feeling lost.

From this point, I can't see any reasons *as a user* to keep 
plan9 on this laptop. It doesn't have any great benefit for 
a user--after all, it's not a product.

There is, of course, the value of plan9 as an experiment or 
learning tool. And that, I suppose, is what separates the 
users from the scientists, or true explorers.

Which am I?

My vanity wants me to believe that I'm a true explorer when 
it comes to computers. I do love to explore, and I do a 
great many things that most users wouldn't do. I fiddle with 
projects of different kinds, for no other reason than to 
learn.

Another piece of the puzzle is this: what does plan9 have to 
offer in terms of exploration, that other more useful 
systems can't offer? I suppose it gives a peek into an 
alternative way of computing, apart from the mainline path 
other modern OSes have taken. I suppose in that regard, 
running from a VM would be just as good.

I have no particular conclusion, I think. This laptop wasn't 
seeing a lot of use anyway, so I'm not in a hurry to make it 
more servicable by putting a product OS on it. It's 
interesting to poke around and learn plan9, and I might just 
have some fun. Maybe that's a good enough reason in and of 
itself...