Re:The Plan 9 Effect or why you should not fix it if it isn'...
by nickpsecurity on Monday May 30, 2016 @11:50AM
(#11801848)
That was the brilliance of NEXT: leverage momentum of UNIX in lower layers while hiding it behind a sensible upper layer. Fixed up the graphics stack, attempted to provide better organization (failure = Mach), and provided consistent, good user interface on top. Maybe better API's, maybe not... never programmed Macs.
I've been saying for a while that a group needs to do this for one of the BSD's. Not just put KDE or Gnome on one but seriously reengineer the GUI, sounds, graphics, admin controls, and package mgmt. Smooth integration with high usability and good efficiency like Macs. Closest I've seen was Mint but had to ditch it for security reasons.
As for the desktop, yeah the experience has improved, but still no proper GUI stack in place, all is built on top of X architecture.
Nothing compared to the work done at Xerox, DEC/Olivetti or even what Microsoft does at MSR.
I came to me thinking how similar the coding experience in Mac OS X, Android and Windows or the whole OS stack is to the way I experienced Oberon back in the day.
Yes Mac based OSes and Android have a UNIX kernel, but when using the official APIs for applications, one would hardly notice it.