Plan 9
No written verdict yet. Here is what commenters said.
18recommend
3warn against
Nov 5, 2025first mention
Sep 28, 2026latest mention
Why people recommend it
“the idea of malleable software is at the core of unix everything is a file and the plan 9 system.”
“Shame we had a cloud ready OS for 35+ years and no one noticed.”
Show 3 more
“the two fish in the pond are plan9, and oberon”
Caveats and dissent
“it's also a big problem that even in Plan 9 mount "outputs" only files, not processes”
“I don't think the Plan 9 team ever figured out how to elegantly implement security/isolation-related primitives”
Show 1 more
“Plan 9 is never make a come back, sorry to say”
Often compared with
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“Booting plan9 with ocaml instead of rc”
Threads where it came up
- What is Plan 9? 5 mentions
- 9front "This Was Supposed to Be Fun" Released 2 mentions
- Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps (2025) 1 mention
- Unix Was Right. We Made Linux Too Complicated [video] 1 mention
- Stop Making TUIs 1 mention
- Decentralized Universal Computer 1 mention
Also written as Plan 9 from Bell Labs. Data: plan-9.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 33
“the idea of malleable software is at the core of unix everything is a file and the plan 9 system.”
“it's also a big problem that even in Plan 9 mount "outputs" only files, not processes”
“Shame we had a cloud ready OS for 35+ years and no one noticed.”
“I used Plan9 so entering a folder is entering a computer.”
“the two fish in the pond are plan9, and oberon”
“I do know that in Plan9, 'everything is a file' is literally correct”
“Plan 9 is mostly Rob Pikes idea”
“I finally got around to living in plan9”
“Check out Plan 9 and Mosix.”
“and plan9”
“take a look at Plan 9”
“here's my workflow for running Plan 9 on Windows”
“plan9 and 9term solved this decades ago, right?”
“Spotting similarities betwen the appearance of the Oberon System and Plan 9”
“Plan 9 has had this for decades, thanks to Plumber”
“If I ever do anything with it, it will be from Plan 9.”
there’s something so beautiful about the plan9 aesthetic https://plan9.io/plan9/img/screenshot-small.png Wonder if it’s possible to recreate on any mainstream operating system…
“Plan 9 was just too early.”
“Plan9 is as close as we've gotten to addressing this”
“Plan 9 made some really cool design decisions”
“I am currently back on the plan9 kick, seeing if I can get it to stick this time”
“A friend did similar using rc on Plan 9”
“I don't think the Plan 9 team ever figured out how to elegantly implement security/isolation-related primitives”
Dozer might be the most likely path to that. https://notgull.net/announcing-dozer
“I just think this sounds very elegant”
https://git.9front.org/plan9front/9front/b18221b10c83d81a9eb4d5f896ad02e3b69095f5/commit.html
“Plan 9 is still alive and kicking”
“the Plan 9 dialect has a some niceties not found in standard C”
“I am currently attempting to install plan9/9front/9legacy”
“Plan9 did look interesting too”
“But the OSes you seem to hate so much implemented many of the plan9 ideas”
“Plan 9 solved the portability problem”
“Plan 9 is never make a come back, sorry to say”