I only use computers at home, mostly for developing friendships on the Internet, and helping family members with their use of the Internet, multimedia and home office applications. I also use the home office and multimedia applications a little bit myself. We all use Windows, but I've been trying for years to switch to a free software system. A few days ago I learned about Plan 9 from someone in a Linux Questions forum, and now I'm learning how to use it. It's installed on on my Toshiba Satellite A45-S150 laptop, along with XP, Wubi Ubuntu, Debian and Slackware. I've learned to use Acme and edit files on a fat partition, created a new user with administrative privileges, and changed the display font.
My only connection to the Internet is through a wireless connection to my family's router network, and I haven't learned yet how to connect from plan 9 with my Atheros wlan card. I'm using Slackware to post this now. I'd also like to learn how to change my display resolution, or how to change the font in Acme. If I ever get connected to the network I'll need to learn how to access files on a Vista laptop. I'll also need to either find a browser, some home office applications and a photo manager for Plan 9, or learn how to run those applications on the Vista laptop over the network from my Plan 9 laptop. Later, I'd like to experiment with distributing the system between my laptop and my wife's laptop. I found a link to a newbie guide on this list, which I'm planning to study, and I'm planning to study the man pages for all the commands that I find in /bin. It would be nice if someone could point me to some step-by-step instructions for Plan 9 dummies, for a wireless connection to a DHCP router network, changing the display resolution or the Acme font, browsing the Web, and accessing files and running applications on a Vista laptop. I'd also welcome any other ideas about learning to use Plan 9.
