Jan 30 2009 - post #2: more on 1.1
The preinstalled qemu node image has several purposes. Most importantly is to provide an easy-to-use form of Plan 9 for every platform. Qemu runs on everything and a preinstalled image means that once the download is complete, the user can be inside a fully functional Plan 9 enivornment instantly. Another goal is to provide easy access to the key component of Plan 9: a CPU server. Another is is to provide a user-driven, decentralized platform for grid computing research and development. The latest version of the image makes bootup easier with a single menu for boot choices. There are more variant versions of plan 9 software and some customizations like the default font, taken from quanstro's subpixel fonts. A small sampler collection of .vac scores for downloading additional docs and collections of Plan 9 pictures from venti.9gridchan.org is also included. Thanks as always to the Plan 9 contributors whose work is included such as fgb (contrib and abaco), andrey (irc7 and links port), and others.