[bishop_mandible]

> I don't hear much about any potential alternatives. So I'm curious about them.

Pike was talking about Plan 9. It was created by the research group that developed Unix as a more modern successor to Unix. From Wikipedia: "Plan 9 from Bell Labs was originally developed by members of the Computing Science Research Center at Bell Labs, the same group that originally developed UNIX and C. The Plan 9 team was initially led by Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, Dave Presotto and Phil Winterbottom, with support from Dennis Ritchie as head of the Computing Techniques Research Department. Over the years, many notable developers have contributed to the project including Brian Kernighan, Tom Duff, Doug McIlroy, Bjarne Stroustrup and Bruce Ellis."

[enneff]

He wasn't just talking about Plan 9. Rob was part of the generation that built Unix, and at that time operating systems research was an exciting frontier of new developments. Today, and at the time this talk was given, operating systems research is a stagnant, niche pursuit.

[chongli]

Today, and at the time this talk was given, operating systems research is a stagnant, niche pursuit.

All that effort has shifted over to the browser and the web as a platform on every device. What's the point of putting such a large effort into a complicated, multi-tasking and multi-user desktop operating system if it spends 90% of its time running a browser for one user?

[enneff]

Well, operating systems are used for more than just end user workstations. Servers are a one example.