In a
Plan 9 network, there are
cpu servers (which provide necessary
services like
network booting and allow
remote execution of programs) and
terminals, which take advantage of these services.
Drawterm is a UNIX/X or Windows program which acts as a Plan 9 terminal. This is similar to allowing exported display under the X Window system.
Combined with other UNIX/Plan 9 interoperability tools (like exporting the Plan 9 filesystem using NFS or exporting the UNIX filesystem using u9fs), this makes for a near-seamless integration of Plan 9 tools (like acme and sam) into one's development toolbox; the only necessary hardware is a single PC (to serve as the CPU server)--it doesn't even require a dedicated display.
I can personally vouch for the usability of this toolset--I open a drawterm to my cpu server to browse my POP3 e-mail, edit my linux box's documents and source code, and do my mandatory Usenet browsing in Plan 9's convenient acme interface, while still having the requisite X Window tools (like a web browser and ICQ client).