9front

Plan 9 is a research system developed at Bell Labs, born in the late ’80s. There are different forks and versions of Plan 9, but the only actively developed one is 9front, a fork with an ongoing effort to maintain the code and to add features.

9front is a compact well of software. Each piece composing it have its source code at arm’s reach, if the manuals did not satisfy your curiosity. The operating system is clean and complete for my daily usage. You won’t find a lot of programming language running on 9, unless someone (maybe you) ports it. There’s no C11, and ANSI C is not the main environment. No, on 9 you use Plan 9 C.

#include <u.h>
#include <libc.h>

void
main(void)
{
	print("Hello, world...\n");
	exits(0);
}

Plan 9 C Hello World.

If you want to try Plan 9, I recommend that you forget about plan9port, get a real mouse, and read the FQA and their wiki. Before or after installing it, on bare metal or in a virtual machine. I can’t guess how adventurous you are.

Some Links

Back of a kimono printed with a rabbit and Mondrian-style patterns. — Average male 9front user around their thirties.

Cover of the November 1996 issue of Cutie magazine. A woman is holding a jar, trapping another woman inside it. — Average male 9front user around their thirties.

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