Heya folks,
Thanks very much for the replies so far, I'm still reading them as they
come in and when the flutter has calmed down a little I'll then start to
reply. I'm just letting you know I am listening and reading and not
being ignorant firing off some random eMail and then doing-one elsewhere :D
Some very high quality responses so far, good giggles as well! Awesome
insights considering my level of Plan9 usage and knowledge at this stage.
Awesome stuff!
On 15/04/2019 16:10, Chris McGee wrote:
Hi Darren,
Your goal seem to be to make the system less daunting for new users. I
think there are a number of ways to accomplish this.
Dressing up the UI and/or making it more like popular used interfaces
might be one way to make new users feel more comfortable. One concern
with doing this is that it allows them to come with other assumptions
that may confusions about how the underlying system works. This effort
could also increase complexity and size of the core system.
Simplicity, size and consistency are aspects of Plan 9 that I really
value. Otherwise, I might as well just use BSD or even Linux.
In my experience one of the biggest hurdles to getting curious new
users to give Plan 9 a try is just getting access to a namespace so
that they can give it a try and learn. I think that the quickest path
at the moment is to install it onto a VM like qemu (or yuck,
virtualbox) since you can bypass the whole hardware selection and
compatibility pain points. I put some YouTube videos up showing people
step-by-step with a decent number of views and comments, so I think
this helped some people just to get their hands on it. There are more
ideas that I'm playing with to help people get started, such as
building a website where you can get a drawterm in your web browser
and give it a try.
Once a new user has access to the system there could be some exercises
and tutorials to engage them. There could be a variety of these
depending on the background, whether programmer, Linux user,
librarian, whatever. The key in my opinion is to not hide the core
system with layer after layer of "pretty" GUI's, but instead reveal it
gradually with decent explanations. I think that the core of Plan 9 is
much easier to explain than other systems because of its smaller size,
relatively consistent interfaces and versatility. Once you grasp one
area it is much easier to begin grasping more of it using the skills
you already have. I can't say the same thing about Linux or any other
system that I have used. Like any tool, there is some required
learning and practice. Good tools amplify your learning as you
practice with it.
Once someone understands how Plan 9 works then I think they will have
many of the tools that they need to build their own networks with it.
I recommend digging into man pages and /sys/doc at this stage. There's
a wealth of well written guides in there, although some could be made
a bit more current. A guide on how to build a home network using
raspberry pi terminals and a CPU/file server from easy to acquire, but
well designed, modern hardware would be a welcome addition.
The system is far from perfect as others will tell you but there's
advances and fixes happening steadily. I'm just not sure if focusing
on the initial user experience through UI look and feel is adding
much. I think a more general discussion of GUI capabilities, such as
video and 3D graphics capabilities, would be great, but more in the
context of what kinds of tasks people want to accomplish. The trick is
to fit those improvements into the rest of the system and not just
jamming them in.
Cheers,
Chris
--
WISECORP <https://wisecorp.co.uk>
Darren Wise
eMail: dar...@wisecorp.co.uk <mailto:dar...@wisecorp.co.uk>
www: https://wisecorp.co.uk
The company [ WISECORP ] accepts no liability for the content of this
email, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the
information provided, unless that information is subsequently confirmed
in handwriting. If you are not the intended recipient you are notified
that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance
on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.
---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com
