j1m: переводы

→We are already profitable with the sale of box sets, subscriptions, tech services and application development.

→10.What has the adoption of Plan 9 and Inferno been like?

→Michael Jeffrey: The most interesting products involving Inferno are currently covered by NDA with our customers. He would say that wouldn�t he I hear you say � but it is true. There are some products that you can see on our website from UMEC in Taiwan (Screen phone) and Broadcom in Korea.

→Inferno offers absolute application portability across different environments. With Inferno, a developer can take a native port, compile it on something like the Compaq iPaq and take the byte code and run it without modification on an NT machine.

→To confront this, Inferno can run as an application on existing systems establishing precisely the same environment that it would if it were the native operating system running on bare hardware. Going further still, it is possible to implement the Inferno protocol for distribution in tiny amounts of space (< 6k bytes) this enables the Inferno metaphor for distribution to be incorporated into really tiny devices.

→At the moment developers end up using a collection of technologies depending upon the platforms involved in the application. The reality is that the number of operating system platforms is increasing not decreasing; there are a significant number of Windows OSes, quite a few more UNIX or Linux OSes and in the real-time or embedded world there is even greater variety. The idea of one OS taking their place is a non-starter.

→Michael Jeffrey: We consider the development of distributed applications to be one of the biggest challenges facing software developers over the coming years. I like to define a distributed application as one that runs across two or more devices where no one device is the master; or more poetically, consider it to be a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose centre is everywhere.

→The earliest UNIX systems were effectively a superstructure for testing out ideas on how to represent and access data. Many of these ideas have now entered the vernacular and are pervasive throughout computing; hierarchical file systems for one. In contrast Plan 9 started with the idea of the definition of a protocol for the access of all resources in the network whether local or remote. Resources to Plan 9 include data, services or hardware devices. This protocol (9P in Plan 9 and STYX in Inferno) is a very simple file service protocol that allows all resources to be represented as a hierarchical collection of names. Of course those with experience of UNIX may say that UNIX has represented in devices as files in the same way. UNIX, however, has represented serial devices for one as special files with special properties; to miss-quote George Orwell �all files are equal except some are more equal than others�. Because these devices have special properties there are significant problems in exporting them as resources across a network for other systems to use.

→Michael Jeffrey: I personally do and I think most of our technical staff also. It is a great privilege to have the stewardship of this technology and we are always striving to retain the clarity of though and simplicity of design that the creators had.

→Michael Jeffrey: Neither OS is Open-Source. However, we think that the licensing and pricing is attractive to individuals and corporate users alike. Anyone who wants to know more can find the Inferno and Plan 9 licenses on our site.

→Once the plugin is installed, users can test it out with some lighthearted examples like Tetris and Minesweeper on our site.

→Michael Jeffrey: Inferno runs in a variety of existing platforms in a hosted environment. As an example, right now anyone can run Inferno apps under the Inferno plugin for Internet Explorer. We�re planning the plugin for Netscape browsers in Windows and Linux for Q2 2002. We�ve had a couple of technical hurdles.

→Michael Jeffrey: Consumer electronics manufacturers and network element builders, primarily, but there are also a large number of academics and enthusiasts who are using the technology.

→Michael Jeffrey: There are a variety of technologies that offer support for distributed applications development. But they are typically characterised by being complex and not useable by devices large and small. For example, many people say that CORBA is extraordinarily complex, and if the thickness of the books are any indication, they may be right. Similar comments could be made regarding DCOM, SOAP and .Net.

→Inferno, however, goes a step further than Plan 9. Plan 9, like most operating systems takes control of an entire device and must replace an existing operating system. Inferno on the other hand has been designed such that it can either run as a native OS on bare hardware or as an application on existing operating system platforms (Windows 95,98,2000,NT, Linux, Solaris and others). Inferno also runs all its applications within a Virtual Machine that guarantees byte code portability across both native and hosted platforms. Inferno is uniquely capable of providing an environment for distributed applications across devices large and small.

→Michael Jeffrey: Inferno and Java originated around the same time, but Java OS never got off the ground. The VM appeared but I think its implementation didn�t match the real portability that was promised by the Java OS. I believe Inferno achieved what Java set out to do.

→16. Terrific, your site has a lot of information.

→15. What licensing covers Plan 9 and Inferno?

→14. What�s the best way for a potential developer or customer to experience Inferno?

→11. What is Vita Nuova�s a typical customer?