Sun today announced that it has distributed more than one million registered licenses for the Solaris 10
OS since Jan. 31, when the software became available on Sun’s Web site. Sun also announced that the Solaris 10 OS has set fourteen world-record benchmarks in this same timeframe and demonstrated application performance improvements greater than 50 times that of previous versions of Solaris.
One Million Solaris 10 Licenses Distributed in First Two Months
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I tried to download it, but it is 4 cds – they downloaded but didnt complete properly. I even tried using Sun Download manager – when I finally downloaded it, I couldn’t unzip it in Windows XP. A lot of other people are having these problems. What a shame!
Sun really has hit a home run for 2005. Congrats, Sun!
I would try to download an ISO, but it would repeatedly fail, tried to restart the transaction but it would tell me to login into my account which I already was. I have 1 successful download. Just to check my download log required to be apply for another license.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v64/super_science_monkey/trans.jp…
I used the Sun Download Manager over low-end DSL, and got all 4 CDs in about a day. I used the SPARC versions, though, but had no problems unzipping the ISOs and burning them to CD-R.
I would also like to bring to attention my friend, David, who has apparently applied for 11 licenses yet has never fully downloaded Solaris 10.
The poor bastard is on Dial-up.
I have been downloading ISO’s from Sun continuously since August of 2003 and I have only had one problem. More specific information would be helpful in determining where the problem is.
Actually, I would bet you only got one license but downloaded six times. IIRC, the licenses count is part of your profile, and isn’t just a per-download count.
Interesting when I review the first few comments to this article and the worst complaint is folks having trouble downloading and burning the CD’s. Not like this is a solaris only d/l problem 😉 Speaks wonders within itself.
FYI – Pulled the x86 CD’s and even the DVD down (without the d/l manager) via 3200/952k DDSL, no problems downloading or burning. DVD is the way to go!
JT
In my profile at Sun’s download site, it shows the number of systems I’m entitled to, which is independent of download attempts.
So, this 1,000,000 _registered_systems_ is exactly that. It means the number of attempted downloads is irrelevant.
Ah good to know.
Where does it say how many systems I’m entiled to? I have to keep agreeing to Sun’s EULA before I can get to my account.
Didn’t have a problem grabing the CD ISO’s via wget then unziping them on my RedHat box. Solaris 10 is currently running on my Dual UE2 JDS is an impressive looking desktop.
“Where does it say how many systems I’m entiled to?”
In that survey that appears after the EULA, I always see the same number of systems listed, and the entitlement document was e-mailed to me only for the first download. If you go to the download history section of the website, you can even go directly to the download URLs without needing to click the EULA again or seeing the survey.
Maybe one of you broadband Solaris fanatics would be willing to download and burn me a copy since they want to charge dial up people $50 for the same thing you’re getting for free.
Sun says a lot of things that are demonstrably untrue.
Actually, I just realized that the entitle document does get sent out for each download, but the survey information remains unchanged.
I’ve downloaded the release version and the last two beta versions in DVD and CD ISO for both SPARC and X86 and have never had a problem.
I’ve installed Solaris 10 on an Ultra 5, an Ultra80, my Java Workstation W2100z (64-bit), dual 933Mhz CPU IBM x220 server, and even my Compaq 900Z AMD 1800+ Laptop. It’s neato. Aside from the funky wireless on my laptop and setting up the 1400×1200 display, everything has worked out of the box.
I even got the laptop to multi-boot with Win XP, SUSE, and Solaris 10 using the instructions at: http://multiboot.solaris-x86.org/
My only real complaint is probably because of my own ignorance… but I can’t get Firefox or Thunderbird to use any decent looking fonts. I’ve tried installing Firefox by itself and by using http://www.blastwave.org and the ugly fonts that it uses are really annoying. For servers I really don’t care, but I’ve been trying to Solaris 10 on my W2100z as a desktop and it’s driving me nuts.
If there’s an easy way to import some Windows fonts into Solaris 10 and have applications actually use them I’d love to know how. I haven’t been able to find a solution that works so far.
This release of Solaris is a fine one but it still has a far way to go. Everything about it screams modify and hire expensive consultants. I don’t think there is a single satisfactorily chosen default. From the moment you put the CD in the drive, Solaris is screaming not ready from prime time. The installation is bloated, annoying, and slow. Want to speed it up a bit so it doesn’t take 4 hours to install, modify the config for the cdrom using a cryptic command so that it can install faster than 4x. Afterwards, you will still suffer through the pathetic installation but it will last a bit less. Oh, and don’t bother to try to use it as a workstation at home because half the drivers are still missing. You will have to go hunting for those and troubleshoot each one. And if you don’t like the default shell (which accounts for 99% of the people), you will have to change it manually. Want to use DNS? Change the default settings. Want to compile something, install GCC and fix the path manually. Yes, it is a fact, there isn’t a single sane default config. And don’t even get me started about mantaining backwards compatibility. I don’t see how this is an issue when Sun threw out entirely the old startup engine and made so many other changes. Why can’t Sun grow up and enter the 21st century.
What’s your problem?
The installation is actually quite easy. I’ve heard of the DMA issue with CD-ROMs, but Sun’s choice actually makes it more reliable. It appears you already found the fix for speed.
Changing /bin/sh to /usr/bin/bash is _one_line_ in the passwd file. Yes, bash is included in Solaris.
DNS should have been handled for you during the install. There is a whole section just for entering your name servers.
GCC is installed under /usr/sfw/bin/gcc. /usr/sfw is the directory Sun has been using for years now for OSS software that has been integrated into the base supported platform.
Backwards compatibility?!?!?!? Sun guarantees it!
And the new startup engine, SMF, is what UNIX has been needing for years.
Sure, Solaris isn’t meant for everyone or for every solution. But…
Most people that even know what Solaris is don’t need to hire a consultant to edit the two files necessary to get onto the Internet.
echo nameserver *your dns server ip* -> /etc/resolv.conf
edit /etc/nsswitch.conf and add the word “dns” at the end of the “hosts: files” line.
It’s not that big of a deal. But I do agree that it’s silly that the installation program doesn’t bother to ask and set that up for you.
It doesn’t take 4 hours to install. I didn’t time it, but I ‘m thinking it took a little over an hour on my 440Mhz Ultra 5. And that’s the slowest computer I have.
Give them time, the drivers will come. They just started giving a damn about x86 within the last year or so.
I personally have a license for 2 systems for Solaris 10 x86 but I’m NOT using it on any system at all. I downloaded it, installed it, tried it for a few days, didn’t like it and erased it. Simple as that, they can claim all the numbers they want, but none of this means much because they can’t tell you how many people are STILL using Solaris 10 after registering and downloading.
This is all just PR marketing. The same goes for Mozilla’s Firefox. The numbers of downloads are irrelevent unless you subtract out the unknown number of people that have re-installed systems or add in the number using Firefox from 3rd parties.
If Sun were to publish the number of licenses that have been paid for, that would more likely be accurate to a partial installed base figure because those that paid are more likely to still be using the product. I’d suspect that number is likely much much smaller.
The fact that the owners of 1 million computers even bothered to download Solaris 10 shows that there is a lot of interest. Solaris 10 is the biggest thing to happen to UNIX in nearly a decade, which has stirred up a lot of attention and debate.
Sun cannot publish the number of people who paid for Solaris 10, because Solaris 10 is free. The only thing they could provide would be the number of people buying support contracts. I suppose someone with enough creativity could dig that out of next year’s financial statements.
As a little experiment, I decided to see if I could replace my work PC with Solaris 10 last week. I plan to use it fll time as my workstation to do network admin work along with email/browsing, etc. The PC is an older PII-800 with 1gb ram.
I chose the “End User” install (2.5gbs) and away we go. The install by default is very slow as mentioned countless times all over the place. Being (4) cd’s sort of surprises me (although I only was asked for first 3) as some live linux CD’s I have tried seemed to have more included by default than a full install of SOL10 AS a Desktop replacement. My Linksys network card was not recognized and then tried a Dlink 530+ only for that not to be recognized as well. A quick check of the HCL would have saved me alot of time as they both aren’t on there but I just assumed they would be fine since linux/bsd works fine with them. I had to dig through my hardware box to find a realtek (yuk) card that was supported and finally got a install through with network working when done.
The Java Desktop I am really pleased with. Nice fonts and clean layout with GNOME underpinnings. No sound (UGH). Some quick digging and I found some sound drivers but being a SOL newbie I don’t really understand concept of the OS yet and how to install them, etc. The JDS3 is ever so slightly laggy to me even though I do have plenty of ram. Not bad, but noticeable, coming from WinXP platform on same machine. When I scroll in mozilla it sort of stutters at times, file browsing is a little delayed on large directories, etc.
Overall I REALLY like SOL10 and being a first release I can forgive its little nuances. The number one beef right now is definetly DRIVERS. For two common NIC’s to not work, no sound and laggy video in a modern OS is bafeling. ESPECIALLY since they do pitch SOL10 as desktop alternative as well. They jumped on that a little too early and I suspect will cost them alot of first time users who do decide to try SOL10 but quickly jump ship back to their Linux comfort zone after having trouble with hardware that was just working. I almost was to point of saying “f#$ it” and making this a “BSD Work PC” experiment instead but I was determined to do SOL10 and I continue to be glad I did the more I use it and learn it.
Which brings me to the second large beef. Documentation is piss poor. Outside of Suns semi-basic SOL10 docs, there is basically NO HELP out there. The Sun forums are just as bad with alot of questions having zero replies. Google searches turn up all past Solaris versions with little relevance to 10. For example, the NIC situation mentioned above. It was EASIER for me to just reinstall from sratch than it was to insert the new NIC manually and get it working. I don’t like this and usually isn’t me. But searching came up with little help and what I did find was half explained.
With the major revamps and conceptual changes to SOL10 from past SOL versions, I feel like I am driving a fresh out to water modern aircraft carrier with just a basic manual to guide me. A powerful OS with no documentation. I do a list of running services and see a ton of them and want to turn off some of them to help with performance and security. The new way to manage services in SOL10 I can see being wonderful, AFTER you can find some good and clear documentation to explain it. Usually a google search solves any linux/bsd/windows question. But do “svcs” and it comes up blank.
How do I update Mozilla CLEANLY in SOL10? I want to update Mozilla without any breakage to current setup. Couldn’t find out how. It took me a while to even find out how to uninstall the current one and then I downloaded a newer one. But now have to dig through the directories to start mozilla instead of having it nicely linked throughout JDS. All I wanted was to update the current one to 1.7.6 (it was 1.7). I looked at Blastwave packages but those don’t ‘update’ current ones installed from SUN. I also spent hours trying to learn if any patches have come out for SOL10 since release (they have). But I learned the hard way that “smpatch” works, but can’t be used since the “End User” group I installed doesn’t include some additional backend stuff needed by “Smpatch”. So again inconsistency, poor documentation, etc. “What can I choose NOT to install to save space but have working desktop”? Good luck finding that out..
Give it a try, but be prepared for some thinking and extra time to do common things you were used to doing without trying in Windows or even alot of Linux distro’s now (even BSD). How can I play Real movies in SOL10? Quicktime? Will my sound ever work? I stuck in my USB Memory stick and even though SOL10 ‘saw’ it according to some checks I did, I could not access it or find out how. That was until I rebooted and it appeared on my desktop! But not can’t even do that again (probably turned off a needed service).
All in all I DO like SOL10 and am sticking with it as my desktop (I can I am typing this from it right now). It will be good learning experience plus I already like it and its potential. As a server OS it is already prime-time as the rough edges are mostly for desktop use. I think SOL10 will be very relevant in near future after they polish the rough edges, gain some driver support with opensolaris, and get documentiation and users posting more on the web. Very GOOD effort and product from SUN so far but just needs a little growing up at this point.
Are you reading the same documentation that I am reading at docs.sun.com? There is help at comp.unix.solaris or alt.solaris.x86, where I have seen numerous posts for help and many got answers. This is where I found out that Veritas is dragging their feet on support for NetBackup (we were actually looking at deploying Solaris 10 until we found out that NetBackup version we had would not support Solaris 10 without significant upgrades).
For LinkSys drivers look here:
http://sol-enet.sourceforge.net/support.shtml
And if you have spent any amount of time here, I can help as well and have offered it to other people who have had issues with Solaris.
“Outside of Suns semi-basic SOL10 docs, there is basically NO HELP out there.”
Sun’s main documentation outlets are http://docs.sun.com and http://sunsolve.sun.com. There are also a number of mailing lists out there, like those at http://www.sunhelp.org.
Many search results for prior versions of Solaris should still be helpful, too, as Solaris is a very stable platform over time. Solaris 10 has lots of big changes, granted, but the basics are all still there.
The new services manager does take getting used to, but the information for it is at docs.sun.com. Once you get a hang of it, services are managed quickly with the CLI instead of the many /etc/rc* directories.
“How do I update Mozilla CLEANLY in SOL10?”
You install another one and create a desktop “launcher” for it. The way Sun works is that their base configuration is fixed, so developers have a known target. If a developer works against one Solaris 10 3/05, then his/her code will work on all Solaris 10 3/05. Mozilla 1.7 is a part of that. What I did was install Firefox under /opt and use that, instead.
This is probably one source of confusion for people coming to Solaris from Linux. Sun doesn’t really play fast and loose with the core system, meaning it isn’t really meant for tweaking (as in removing their Mozilla to install a new one). In general, this is where /opt and /usr/local are your friends, along with Blastwave.org and SunFreeware.com.
Also, once the OpenSolaris mailing lists open up sometime later this year (according to http://www.opensolaris.org), I anticipate that will be a huge resource for users.
Has anyone succesfully installed Sol 10 on a sparc machine using a linux server? The documentation is terrible; it requires the use of some very broken scripts, which are themselves totally undocumented. Google is of no help either. Any tips or links would be very much appreciated, since my Ultra2 wants to live again
Thanks for the suggestions. Those docs at SUN are great but basic and I seem to come to stumbling blocks at everything I attempt so far in SOL10 (MOSTLY because of unfamiliararity, I ADMIT).
For example, I read the docs at SUN as I wanted to try out SOL10’s patching/upgrading mechanism (am used to easy BSD CVSUP/Buildworld etc). So I come to the doc and then see there are THREE ways to patch SOL10. I know SMC is not installed so I skipped that one. I didn’t want to do it fully manually so I skipped ‘patchadd’ stuff. SMPATCH sounds just what I am looking for. Supposedly automatic and integrated. I type ‘smpatch analyze’ as in the doc and get error message about ‘etc/patch/patch.conf not found’. Search and search and NOTHING. WHY the F@#% doesn’t smpatch not work for me? After reading about the different install groups, I determined that a few other required programs for smpatch are not installed by default in “End User” group although smpatch is.
Another example; Are all these default services that were required as dependancies at the install really required? I have servers such as finger running, a bunch of NFS stuff, RPC, rlogin, etc. (Plus Thai/Jap fonts, sendmail, Java 1.4 *AND* 5 and so on). Removing them at install gives dependancy warnings. And keeping them has a bunch of stuff running that I don’t KNOW if it is needed for SOL10 to work properly as a desktop OS or if they were just ‘safe’ suggestions to install. SUN’s docs tells how to use svcs but will I get a unbootable machine soon by turning off what I THINK is unneeded?
Same with the newsgroups. They seem to have alot more ‘older’ Solaris content than 10. Plus I have found better support at the Yahoo Solaris group than SUNS actual forums.
Just the fact that it is SO slow to install and takes some research on how to make it so CD DMA is enabled for install (I still don’t even know how) is a boo-boo in my opinion too. Mandrake finishes in 20 minutes. Hell, even XP I can get done in about 45. Plus I don’t remember last time I had to go searching on the net for drivers to fairly common NIC cards (Linksys/Dlink) (pretty hard to do when your box has no net AND USB keychain devices don’t want to seem to work perfectly) for a modern OS default install. Even BSD 4x has them up at first boot.
Listen, I am NOT flaming or cutting down SOL10. I actually REALLY like it and I can see it replacing BSD as my favorite OS for servers and a good alernative desktop OS to play with. I am just trying to give some real world examples of some stumbling blocks currently. One of the comments above (where he tried it and frustratingly deleted it) was a perfect example of what I can see happening with curious linux or BSD users giving it a try because of the rough edges currently. I am hoping SUN is serious this time with x86 support and continues to plough on with SOL10 instead of past attempts where they released it and then seemed to sleep on advancing it. Opensolaris will also hopefully surely help in this regards this time around IF we don’t lose the curious to frustration at this 1.0 release.
eE
PS:
Robert – You asked for it and now you might get me bothering you for help..
Anon – Thanks. I understand now. BSD has same philosophy that /usr/local is for software installed by the USER or 3rd party. But they don’t have Mozilla, *for example* in /usr/sbin and expect me to leave it alone while I install a new one to /usr/local and you were right in that it caused a little confusion.
I have never tried it (I have an Ultra 10 set up for this) but I found some links that might help you:
http://www.znark.com/tech/solarisinstall.html
http://www.transposed.org/techstuff/linux-jumpstart.html
http://www.docbert.org/Solaris/Jumpstart/linux.html
The one thing to remember is that the Software 1 of 4 CD has multiple mount points (and breaks the ISO 9660 Standard). Make sure that you see all mount points before continuing.
For patching, I have always used patchadd for individual patches, or just used the big patch clusters from Sun Solve that have their own scripts. For a home desktop, there really isn’t a need for more than this, IMO.
There are many services that can be disabled without dependency problems. For a home desktop, pretty much anything related to Kerberos, LDAP, NIS, DHCP, NTP, WBEM, and many RPC and inetd services can be disabled. If the man page for a service sounds like it applies to only big data centers, then it is likely it can be done away with. Always leave telnet or SSH in place in case you get locked out of the console for some reason.
Those look great! Thanks!
I guess it depends on how you view “One Million Solaris 10 Licenses Distributed in First Two Months” as – SUN would love you to see that one million statistic as being 1 million new Solaris users – I think the bigger one is, not necessarily the number who upgraded, but the numbers who moved from Linux/Windows to Solaris.
Had they said, “one million ex-Windows/Linux customers have moved to Solaris 10”, then I would *really* be impressed
but with that being said, one million licenses is all too easy; many could have simply downloaded it to try it out – question is, along with the migration question, how many have actually decided to use Solaris for the long term – beyond the initial hype?
Perhaps it’s 1 million downloads.Nevertheless i got everything installed.Although they really have to do some polishing on the arcane install procedure the OS itself is not bad at all.
I downloaded it and registered for it, but I did not keep it install for a days, I went immedietly back to Debian.
Sun has some questionable statistics presentation practices…1 million attempts at downloading does not 1 million licenses make…
How many of these users stuck around?
I would guess many of these users went back to Linux. I for one did, it just doesn’t compete. Maybe they will do something about there installer, maybe they will get better hardware support. Who knows where it will go, and I personally hope the best for Solaris. If not for anything else, then to push Linux to get better.
Right now, it simply doesn’t amount to its hype. I for one was _very_ disappointed.
I tried to download Solaris a couple of times (by going to the download page), and for every attempt I got an email “giving” me a licence (without support). So, I guess I have at least 6 of those 1M licences, and I don’t even have Solaris installed anymore (I wanted it just to give it a try).
I used opera to download all 4 cds on 56k, i probably paused and resumed each download 10 times, and I didn’t have any problems with the downloads. All the files work for me. I don’t know why so many people have trouble downloading it
This isn’t just 1 million downloads. Sun are saying “registered systems.”
Its a common problem – just see
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozil…
the first link…
I tried the built in upzipper and even winzip but neither worked.
I have used ICEOWS for years without any problems, including Sun zip files:
http://www.iceows.com/HomePageUS.html
just for downloadin and testing it.I don’t think that ppl keeps it in there hardware.if you want to download,you have to register and that’s way!
Solaris is not meant for joe who NOW likes linux and wants to have a SOLARIS INTEL WORKSTATION.. Even more, SUN is not giving a damn about why XXXX ethernet is not working…
Solaris installation is slow??? WHO CARES!!!! how many times do you actually install solaris when you have a NetraT1, E450 or some decent x86 HP Server?????
Come on! gimme a breake, Solaris is not about hype… its about UNIX TECHNOLOGY!!
got it? now go to sleep now , gonna tell your mum!!