Linux & Open-Source Center Editor Steven Vaughan-Nichols wishes Sun would either embrace Linux or stop using Solaris on Intel as a pawn against it.
Solaris on Intel: Here We Go Again
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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That’s Sun for you. Get over it.
wait wasnt sun thinking about going to gpl license just a few weeks ago? lol
http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=6911
Afflictecd by p* envy. I don’t hear Linux bitching about Solaris all the time. He is probably confident that with time, Linxu could me Solaris’ equal based on it’s own merit; FUD is not necessary.
Whether he’s right or not only time will tell, but at least he has enough self-confidence that he doesn’t need competing OSes to delete themselves in order to feel secure.
Sorry for the typo.
Further proof that McNealy and Schwartz need to leave this company if they want to see it survive. Its amazing, but Sun is following Digital’s doomed path of sound engineering yet all the while crippling themselves with bad marketing and product decisions. I’ve spent over 14 years in Unix Administration and Engineering, most of it with Sun platforms in the Data Center. But I have stopped working Solaris as an Operating System and Sparc as a Hardware platform, and will never go back. With this type of idiotic corporate behavior continuing, I just don’t see a future for Sun.
This has to be one of the most idiotic articles I have read in a while. Who said Solaris is against Linux? Isn’t it all about freedom of choice? It looks like IT journalists really like coming up with controvercial but nevertheless pointless drivel just for the sake of attracting more attention themselves, Sun and Linux just appears to be an easy topic for them. Get over it…
You guys need to take a step back and look at why Sun exists today. Their primary product for 15 or so odd years has been Solaris on enterprise hardware. We have put in a lot of time and effort in making it ready and available for enterprise usage, and if you don’t mind me saying so, it does “kick butt” there. Talking about dropping Solaris and sticking with Linux is very amateurish. Sun has definitely realized the potential in Linux, and it provides the customers the choice of whether they would like to have Solaris or Linux on the mid-to-low end servers. By providing the choice, Sun is helping foster competition against its competitors such as Redhat, or Microsoft. This also helps bring Linux more to the forefront of technology.
SunOS/Solaris was on x86 before Sparc. Remember Sun3?
I still have to wonder if part of the issue is that the design of Solaris makes it suck on 32-bit x86. You don’t get to use some of the architectural benefits that you have on Sparc. To be fair, OSX would probably be pretty lousy on a 32-bit x86 machine, too. I’m interested to see what the native AMD64 port looks like, complete with 64-bit support. It wouldn’t suprise me to see Sun start selling some of these with a custom chipset so that they’re not PC’s, but Sun machines (OpenBoot and the rest).
As for Linux, Sun is selling it because customers want it. They have to compete in the market of Linux-on-x86 against Dell, HP, and IBM.
This is just more CR*P from the kiddies.
Linux and Solaris are both great environments,
it’s just a question of Linux fanatics not knowing anything about Solaris that causes these childish boring tirates.
Yes, I work for a fortune 50 with too many lawyers…
I am a NIX admin, and basically I was told that we could not run Linux on the desktop because it was not approved to run on the Intel servers (managed by another group)..
I figured well, my department is responsbile for all solaris, AIX and HPUX systems…. so hell, I will just put Solaris x86 on it and boom…a box that is our departments responsabilty.
Now, I have had Linux on this exact same system (before I got the no-no), and I have to tell you…. Solaris is a DOG!!
I have tweaked the heck out of it, turned off atimes, made a dozen adjustments to the system file etc.. and it still is dog slow.
Solaris will sort of “lock up” the desktop whenever anything goes on at all that taxes the system such as starting java or openoffice etc.. it really sucks as a desktop on X86.
If you dont mind a 2ghz PC pretty much taking a lunch break for 15 seconds when you startup OpenOffice, then its fine…and I still use it instead of Windows.
But, man, Linux on this same x86 hardware tears solaris a huge new bunghole.
The article shoots itself in the foot by mentioning that Sun brought staroffice for Linux ahead of Solaris x86 anyway. Just accept that they sell and support both.
Solaris will sort of “lock up” the desktop whenever anything goes on at all that taxes the system such as starting java or openoffice etc.. it really sucks as a desktop on X86.
If you dont mind a 2ghz PC pretty much taking a lunch break for 15 seconds when you startup OpenOffice, then its fine…and I still use it instead of Windows.
Which version of Solaris? I have a tough time believing this. What did you tweak in the system file? The doesn’t sound normal.
The fact that Solaris for x86 was downloaded a million times doesn’t mean a lot. I believe many people found out that they couldn’t install it on their computers, unless these were built either 10 years ago or according to the hardware compatibility list. Come on, Sun, even BeOS (a dead, euh… resurrected OS) supports more hardware than your product. This has nothing to do with Linux.
No offence to you guys, but how many people here have ACTUALLY tried a recent Solaris x86 build (i.e., Solaris Express, version 10). I first learned about Solaris Express in the 1/04 build, and I was quite impressed.
The performance was pretty good, the UI was nice and clean and well-presented (bit fugly though), and overall it was remarkably consistent and well though-out. (After all, these are the guys that funded the HIG for the GNOME project.)
Sure, it didn’t replace my usual Linux distro, but I certainly think it’s considerably better than any of the FUD that people are spreading. In fact, I just downloaded the 5/04 build, mainly to try out some of the new features, like Zones, DTrace and ZFS.
Admittedly, hardware support leaves something to be desired, but if you’re willing to experiment a bit, read up on mailing lists, and compile stuff (and if you’re running Linux, you should), then it works fine.
Anyway, I think I’ll just wipe and install Slackware-current, Solaris, and Longhorn 4074, and pick one at random for every day of the week =).
Solaris will sort of “lock up” the desktop whenever anything goes on at all that taxes the system such as starting java or openoffice etc.. it really sucks as a desktop on X86.
If you dont mind a 2ghz PC pretty much taking a lunch break for 15 seconds when you startup OpenOffice, then its fine…and I still use it instead of Windows.
What a crock of crap. I’m using right now Solaris 04/04 sitting on a IBM Aptiva 2196-24A, which has a 550Mhz AMD processor, 256MB RAM, integrated SIS540 graphics chip, SIS900 ethernet, 60gig 7200rpm hard disk, 24x LiteOn CDROM, 15Inch screen etc. etc. and it runs like champ.
I don’t know what mystical voodoo you’ve done with your computer, but this computer is so el-cheapo it struggles to run Windows 2000 adequately but is able to run Solaris quite nicely. Explain that “magicaly phenominon”?
I’ve noticed this problem with Sol9. I’ve never tried it on x86 but the Sparc version had the same issues. What ever changes Sun made to their scheduler seems to be causing this. Sol8 didn’t have this problem. This seems to be isolated to workstation types loads. I’m running quite a few Sol9 Sparc boxes as servers with no problems.
It’s only fair to note that I haven’t used Solaris in a workstation env. since the first 9 release.
This seems to be isolated to workstation types loads. I’m running quite a few Sol9 Sparc boxes as servers with no problems
Which workstation model is this on? I know Sunblade 100, sb 2000, sb 1500, sb 2500 have very agressive power management. Some times the App or OS might appear to “lock up” becuase the disk is spinning up. Happens to me every time I get into work, i’ll touch a file on the second disk and it will seem like that file is taking a long time and locked up, but you can hear the disk spin up.
But the whole OS locking up is strange to say the least.
The “system locking up” is inacurate. Under certain high load cituations X would become unresponsive. You could still ssh into the box and do what ever, but the graphical environment would be unresponsive.
Again, this was in an early release of 9, so things might have changed. Either way, Solaris, in my opinion, is inapropriate for ‘normal’ desktop use. It’s like killing flies with a shot gun.
I’d have to call your comment a troll, or state that you have just seriously misconfigured your system in your ‘tweaking’. Or, it could be related to the scheduler in Solaris 9.
I’ve been running Solaris 8 x86 smoothly and without problems on the following:
Dual Celeron 366
Atlas 10k SCSI U160 HDD
512MB PC133 RAM
Matrox G400
Adaptec 2940U2W Controller
The only issue I had was getting the right NIC. It runs like a champ and has for years. That is significantly less power than your P4 2ghz.
– Kelson
Yes, this article summarises the sad truth about Sun.
Great engineering company being steered to oblivion by people who should get out of the way & let someone who has a clue take over.
<sigh>