Who: Anthony Sorace
What: Plan 9
Where: 1930 SW 4th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97201-5304, Room 86-01
When: Thursday December 4, 2025 at 7 PM
Why: The pursuit of technology freedom
Summary:
Plan 9 is an operating system with some very interesting properties,
especially around distributed systems, networking, and resource sharing.
It was originally developed by the same group at Bell Labs which
developed Unix and shares a clear heritage that will make many parts
familiar to experienced users of other unix-like systems, but in many
ways represents an "alternate universe" for how Unix might have
developed. While it's seen only limited commercial use, it has proven
itself suitable to a wide range of applications, including supercomputer
clusters, network appliances, and embedded systems. And as a small,
consistent system with a unifying philosophy, it can be interesting to
study and explore even outside its practical utility.
Together, let's take a brief tour of this alternate universe's history,
what makes it exciting to people who live (or visit) there, the current
landscape, and where it might (or might not!) be interesting for you.
Bio:
Anthony Sorace (he/him) is some sort of engineer. Professionally, his
work has focused on system architecture and process analysis, looking at
how people can use computers to solve (some of) their problems. On the
side, he enjoys messing about with networking, databases, and systems
software. He is a slightly reluctant web programmer and enthusiastic
cook. He has been using Plan 9 since the late nineteen hundreds, a few
weeks before starting a job at Bell Labs working with related
technology, and currently serves as a director of the Plan 9 Foundation,
a non-profit dedicated to advancing research on lightweight distributed
systems using these technologies.
Calagator: https://calagator.org/events/1250482315
With luck, the talk will also be streamed live here:
http://www.twitch.tv/kngbwlf, and later posted to YouTube.
PLUG is back at Portland State University, thanks to the Computer
Science Department and to Andrew Greenberg. The room is in the basement
of the PSU Engineering Building (also connected underground to the
Fourth Avenue Building, or FAB). Enter through the Engineering Building.
The outside door will be locked, but there should be someone present at
the entrance to let you in starting at 6:40pm until 7pm. There will be a
sign on the door with a phone number you can SMS if there isn't someone
there to let you in immediately.
--
Russell Senior
PLUG Volunteer
[email protected]
