I mean, yes, I agree with you, Plan 9 is the true successor to Unix.
But Inferno is the true successor to Plan 9.
And yet, both are obscure and relatively rarely used anywhere, whereas VMS Software Inc. just shipped OpenVMS version 9.2, the first production-ready release of native x86-64 OpenVMS.
VMS has now run on 4 different CPU architectures, migrated 3 times, and it is still out there, still in production, still being used by enough organisations to pay for another port and a new native version in 2022.
1. VAX → Alpha
2. Alpha → IA64 (Itanium)
3. IA64 → X86-64
It's doing well for something "obsolete".
Plan 9, sadly, has not even managed to replace Unix enough to hinder the vast uptake of an original 1970s-style monolithic FOSS version: Linux. I'm typing on it right now.
9front took plan9 further. A truckload of new drivers and software. They even have a video and audio player, some game ports, system emulators, (hardware virtualization!), and so on. Get 9front and try it.
OFC not even close to a Linux or BSD support, but everything works like magic. No ssh, no enforced VTs, no POSIX (coding in C it's pure love here), no crapware.
On Linux, meh. I prefer OpenBSD, my main OS. Meanwhile I am using Alpine for, well, that ecosystem bound to the penguin with Linux-only software. But not for long...
I found the Inferno desktop a lot more navigable and comprehensible than 8½, Rio, Acme etc.
I still wonder if it might be possible to merge Plan 9 (and derivatives) and Inferno. Give the choice of C compiled to a native binary, or Limbo compiled to Dis.
I mean, yes, I agree with you, Plan 9 is the true successor to Unix.
But Inferno is the true successor to Plan 9.
And yet, both are obscure and relatively rarely used anywhere, whereas VMS Software Inc. just shipped OpenVMS version 9.2, the first production-ready release of native x86-64 OpenVMS.
Here's a news story I wrote on it: https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/10/openvms_92/
VMS has now run on 4 different CPU architectures, migrated 3 times, and it is still out there, still in production, still being used by enough organisations to pay for another port and a new native version in 2022.
1. VAX → Alpha
2. Alpha → IA64 (Itanium)
3. IA64 → X86-64
It's doing well for something "obsolete".
Plan 9, sadly, has not even managed to replace Unix enough to hinder the vast uptake of an original 1970s-style monolithic FOSS version: Linux. I'm typing on it right now.