There we are! It took them a while, but Oracle has finally said a few things about the future of Sun's SPARC and Solaris products. Oracle placed an ad in the European edition of The Wall Street Journal listing four plans the company has with SPARC and Solaris.
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Member since:2005-07-08
That's mighty big of you, I am not so kind. I don't agree with the reason why segedunum throws Sun under a bus. It stems from his experience with Solaris 9 and his attempts to run Zope. According to segedunum Zope runs far better on Linux than Solaris. He does not articulate why, or what he did to come to this conclusion. I don't buy it. Where is the performance data to back it up, did segedunum run sar and system accounting to gather some data, more than likely not.
This is no different than some of the application owners I deal with at work who say the OS and the hardware are at fault for poor application performance every time. In order to get optimum application performance you have to gather statistics and tune the application, anyone who expects an application to work perfectly out of the box is an idiot! In one of the instances I just mentioned, the default Java parameters were set to 128 MB, the default. We set them to use a GB of memory and the performance issues went away. Adrain Cockroft states "tune the application, not the OS" and this man knows far more about performance tuning than I do. So if the application performs poorly is that the fault of the OS? I don't think so. To say so is nothing more than a cop out and shows a lack of administrative skill.
Segedunum's so-called facts are nothing more than articles and blog posts that support his position, anybody can cherry pick pieces that support their argument. Ask segedunum to point to something he actually likes about Solaris, I am willing to bet he can't. At least shaman, the troll who said that OpenSolaris is "vaporware" could point to several things he liked about Solaris. My position on Linux here is well known, but I can point out things I like about it, just as I can with Windows, AIX, and HP-UX.
If segedunum is still going on about ZFS and memory requirements, he obviously chose to forget the last article I wrote for OSNews where I benchmarked the performance of ZFS against ext3:
http://www.osnews.com/story/19823/A_Solaris_Administrator_Looks_at_...
I use ZFS in production and have no problems with it and have stated so here on numerous occasions.
My personal belief is that segedunum has minimal to no experience with Solaris 10 or OpenSolaris, I can see discussing issues with someone who actually has experience with the product, I think all he does is search for articles and opinions that support his position and posts them as his "facts". I at least use the product and point out what is good and bad about it.
I just think your support is misplaced and if you want to defend segedunum that is your choice, I wouldn't and don't intend to.
Member since:2005-07-06
It's one of the reasons, but not the only one and it's far bigger than that. A lot of organisations have ditched Solaris and SPARC over the years because of not only poor performance but a complete inability to get popular open source software running properly. Apparently, we're all supposed use some supported and expensive J2EE solution or recompile in Forte or whatever it's called now.
Only now has a response to that been created in OpenSolaris, and it is just under ten years too late and completely inadequate - with two or three years of vapourware press releases that Shamen was right about. Even now, the only definable reference implementation you can call OpenSolaris is Nevada.
It was to do with Python, threading and SMP systems as I recall, and basically the Python developers effectively said that they weren't interested in troubleshooting problems on a proprietary system on expensive hardware they couldn't run locally and didn't care about. I can't say I blame them. That was 2000. I believe I explained this umpteen times elsewhere.
It is coming up to about ten years ago now but as it was, we ran a comparison test system on x86, BSD and Linux (the perfectly sensible thing to do by the way, rather than fannying about as you suggest) to see if it was something else unrelated, and it ran without problems on both and was about three times as fast. Solaris on x86 wasn't an option at the time. Rather than troubleshoot a complex problem on a system Sun wouldn't help out with, guess what was decided? Why the hell should I or anyone else help Sun keep a customer, and why should you be arrogant enough to think that anyone will?
My performance data would be useless anyway because it's a drop in the ocean. What we want to know is if other people feel the same way. If you want some brutal performance data as to whether that is the case, look at Sun's last two quarters in particular:
http://blog.internetnews.com/apatrizio/2009/07/suns-q4-outlook-clou...
Where are your 'cherry picked' pieces to support your 'position' by the way, and what relevance do they have to the subject of the article?
When you see ZFS on a 128MB NAS box, where it should be an ideal fit, give me a call. I'll say no more because we're getting off-topic and having the issues at hand clouded by technical bullshit - as many Sun consultants do before they wave NDAs at you over a non-existant ECC memory problem. ;-)
Alas, we're miles off-topic now and we are going off down an avenue that has nothing whatsoever to do with the article. Like most Sun consultants they fight bottom-line thinking and problems with technical bullshit in an apparent masking attempt, even to the last. When the brown stuff hits the fan and the fan finally burns completely to a crisp I just don't know what you'll do.
Member since:2007-07-27
I dont agree with you. If SEGEDUNUM thinks Solaris 8 is a piece of shit, let him think so. He probably has some reasons to think so. Maybe some old benchmarks in the year 2000, ten years ago.
If he provides links and such, supporting his view, then it shows that he has not made up his claims, he is not dreaming. There are people sharing his opinions. Hence, their opinions are valid and are not to be dismissed. Then SUN should use their opinion as a feedback to make Solaris better.
As long as nobody claims false facts, I have no problems at all. If they make clear that it is their opinions, they can write whatever they want. I think.
Segedunum,
Regarding the RAM requirements for ZFS, you say that 128 MB RAM is more appropriate than 512 MB. That is fine, that is your opinion. As long as you dont claim that ZFS NEEDS several GB to function - which it dont.
However, I dont agree with your opinion. My opinion differs from yours. ZFS is targeted for Enterprise use, and Enterprise servers with lots of GB RAM. If you target for 128MB RAM, then you have to make some ugly programming that messes up the ZFS code, you have to make special cases - "if you have low RAM, then use this special algorithm, if you have 512MB RAM, then use this more general, neater algorithm". If you have 512MB RAM as a target, then you can program more freely, and the code will be neater and there will be less special cases and less bugs. In my opinion, a server Enterprise filesystem should target at least 1GB RAM and not less. If you only have 128 MB RAM in your computers, then server enterprise file systems are not for you, obviously.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow."During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Member since:
2007-07-27
SEGEDUNUM,
Earlier I complained that you claimed lots of false things without any evidence. For instance you claimed that ZFS need several GB RAM - which is a wrong statement. People have run ZFS on 512MB, and FreeBSD's ZFS implementation had a bug which made ZFS require much RAM. I asked for proof of your claim, but you didnt provide any. Still you continued to claim. That was wrong of you.
In this post, you provide links and you are clear that they are your opinions. You dont state as facts, but as your opinions. You can not say that "ZFS needs several of GB to function" as a declarative fact, when it is not.
Because you provide links and proofs, and you state your opinions, I have no problem at all with your post. Sure, I dont agree with you as I am a SUN supporter, and you strongly dislike SUN - but that is totally ok. You can disagree with me, and you can write whatever bad things you want, about SUN - as long you are clear that it is your opinions and that you provide links. I will never complain on your posts, then.
You can hate SUN or whatever in your posts, it is ok. I will not argue against you. Everyone has right to have an opinion. If you dislike SUN, that is ok.
Just wanted to make this clear to you. I will not attack your posts if you continue like this: opinions and proofs (via web links). If someone attacks your posts, I will defend you. Because everyone has the right to have an opinion.
But if you write false things, you will have a problem with me. Like "Niagara SPARC is slower than Power6" - which is not true. Some benches SPARC is many times faster than Power6. That would be a false statement, that needs to be corrected. If you write "I like Power6 better" - then that is ok. Because it is your personal opinion. Other people wont be misled to believe that Power6 is faster, they understand it is your personal preference.
"I may not agree with you, but I will give my life for your right to express yourself" - some clever guy said so long time ago.