# Explore the Uncharted Frontier

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## Build the Future with Plan 9

Come learn Plan 9 with us and help us **build the future of operating systems**.

For the last thirty years, the computer landscape has been dominated by UNIX-like clones. But all that is about to change for the free software community thanks to Plan 9.

## Help Change Computing Forever

Plan 9 was created by the original UNIX team from Bell Labs, the same all-star team that invented Unix and the C language. Its contributors included Rob Pike, Ken Thompson, Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, and Bjarne Stroustrup.

## Plan 9 Innovations 

Plan 9 follows the UNIX philosophy more than UNIX itself:

* It takes the simple idea that every interface should be a file and extends that to everything: the keyboard, mouse, sound card, windowing system, and network resources.

* It creates a unique name space for each process so that each process sees a unique file system.

Plan 9 is a **distributed services** operating system designed with the global internet in mind. Its elegant design will make it possible to easily set up clusters and grids of servers in a way never before possible with Unix-like clones.

## Watch a Live Demo

We can give you a [tour](https://jrmu.host.ircnow.org/plan9.webm) of Plan 9. Join us at [[IRCNow](/Ircnow/Servers) to learn more about the design:
We can give you a [tour](https://jrmu.host.ircnow.org/plan9.webm) of Plan 9. Join us at [[IRCNow](/Ircnow/Servers) to learn more about the design:

* Network services using protocols like ssh, ftp, and email simply appear as files on your filesystem. This removes the need for special client interfaces.

* A new windowing system that is completely integrated with the system, with its own file interface, that is independent and easier to code for than X11 and Wayland.

* Chroots have been replaced with unique per-process namespacing

* Berkeley sockets and ioctls have been replaced with /net file system

## Free 9rc Account

IRCNow is offering a **free** 9rc account. We want to train explorers so we can write our own free and open operating system.

Join us to make a lasting impact on technology, to work on a project that will influence free software operating systems for the next twenty years. Let's work on Plan 9 development!

## Plan 9 Innovations Adopted by Linux

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* UTF-8 was first invented in Plan 9!

* procfs was first invented in Plan 9!

* Union filesystems were first invented in Plan 9!

## [What You'll Learn](/9/bootcamp)

# The rio windowing system (mouse chording)

# How to set up your own nameserver and how to purchase a custom domain

# How to compile software on Plan 9

## How to Apply

# If you're new to Plan 9, create a [free plan 9 account](/9/account) and finish the 9-101 tutorial.

# Join us over on IRC on one of our [servers](/ircnow/servers) on #plan9

# Join the [CodeForce](/ircnow/codeforce)