you&#x27;re being deliberately obtuse. the uniformity in plan9 didn&#x27;t mean everything spoke the same protocol, but that every resource could be shared everywhere. you wouldn&#x27;t want your tv tuner card to talk ascii, but with 9p and a plan9 kernel you could access any tv tuner on the office network as if it was connected to your own machine. indeed on any other network that gave you could login to. <i>that</i> is the part that&#x27;s sorely missed.