Linux continues to innovate in the area of file systems. It supports the largest variety of file systems of any operating system. It also provides cutting-edge file system technology. Two new file systems that are making their way into Linux include the NiLFS(2) log-structured file system and the exofs object-based storage system. Discover the purpose behind these two new file systems and the advantages that they bring.
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Member since:2009-05-20
The problem I have with OpenSolaris is the horrible hardware support, for example, Broadcom 43XX support (from Broadcom themselves) is out in the form of a operating system agnostic hybrid driver and yet has not be ported to OpenSolaris by Sun programmers - one of the most common wireless chipsets out there along with the Intel wireless chipsets. Then there is the issue of HAL being replaced and Sun programmers being caught with their pants down - what are they putting up as a replacement?
This is getting a little tiresome. Linux has better hardware support, and everyone knows that. No doubt about it. But if you want to play that game, you can easily also turn it around and say that Windows is the best of them all because it clearly has the best hardware support for consumer PCs. (Drivers may not perhaps directly in kernel, but still every single gadget is supported in Windows.)
If you're talking about OpenSolaris in the capacity of a server - no problems but out side of a large scale server OpenSolaris leaves a lot to be desired. What Linux has is the ability to scale from laptop to desktop to server - I simply don't see that happening in the OpenSolaris world; I see an operating system hobbling along struggling to remain relevant when all the competition has zoomed ahead in leaps and bounds.
I'd imagine OpenSolaris is mostly used as a small or large server. This is what you also propose, then start to make claims about possible problems of scaling to a laptop? Just does not compute.
Member since:2007-07-27
"The problem I have with OpenSolaris is the horrible hardware support, for example, Broadcom 43XX support (from Broadcom themselves) is out in the form of a operating system agnostic hybrid driver and yet has not be ported to OpenSolaris by Sun programmers - one of the most common wireless chipsets out there along with the Intel wireless chipsets. Then there is the issue of HAL being replaced and Sun programmers being caught with their pants down - what are they putting up as a replacement? I see no open discussion about the replacement beyond a couple of people putting out the idea of using a combination of libdevinfo and libsysevent but nothing has developed beyond that. Then there is the issue of making the kernel ticklesss but next to nothing has been done of any sizeable degree to push down power usage and improve battery life on laptops."
Yes, it is a problem that OpenSolaris has not as many drivers as Linux has. This makes the usability experience bad.
The other problems you mention, I dont see them as big problems. You mention a few problems, but there are other problems that other OSes has. Which you dont mention. For instance Linux broken sound API, lack stable ABI, etc. IMO, that is a bigger problem than those you mentioned.
"If you're talking about OpenSolaris in the capacity of a server - no problems but out side of a large scale server OpenSolaris leaves a lot to be desired. What Linux has is the ability to scale from laptop to desktop to server - I simply don't see that happening in the OpenSolaris world; I see an operating system hobbling along struggling to remain relevant when all the competition has zoomed ahead in leaps and bounds."
Yes, Linux has that ability to scale from laptop to server, but how good is Linux ability? As a server it sucks, compared to a real Unix or Mainframe. It is bloated and unstable. As a desktop it sucks compared to Windows or Mac OS X, in terms of usability. On the laptop, it might be good, I dont know. Jack of all trades, master of none.
OpenSolaris also scales from Asus EEE pc up to Big Iron. With the very same kernel. That is scalability. Linux has different kernels for different needs. You have to recompile it. Not scalable, but modifiable.
Regarding "the competition zoomed ahead in leaps and bounds" - I dont agree with you. Yes, the competition is ahead in terms of driver support. But if the nr of drivers is your criterion for an OS you want to use, good for you. Other people prefer stability and hot technology such as ZFS, DTrace - and they are easy to use too. There are numerous of more important things where OpenSolaris is ahead all other OSes. It is just a matter of OpenSolaris catching up on the user side. That is not that hard to do, compared to develop new hot killer tech. It is "just" porting/writing drivers, which any idiot can do. And then OpenSolaris continues to copy Ubuntu in terms of useability and GUI. Even now OpenSolaris is very similar to Ubuntu, almost a true copy. OpenSolaris benefits of all programs developed for Linux, just port them easily.
Which is more difficult? Develop hot new unique tech which no OS ever had, or copy other OSes useability and write drivers? I prefer that my OS just has to copy another OS gui a few years, than develop new revolutionizing tech. It is more difficult to copy new hot tech.
Member since:
2005-07-06
But for these filesystems, I would love to see them in production. The only problem is that it takes at least 6-7 years to develop a filesystem. It is much more tricky than develop a kernel. If you mess up the kernel, you loose a couple of hours of work, maybe. If you mess up the filesystem, you can loose several years of work. Filesystems are the nervous system, the skeleton of OS. Therefore I doubt BTRFS will make it on time. It looks like a good ZFS copy, but it will take several years more for it to be used in production. Even ZFS has bugs, 7-8 years later. And everyone agrees that SUNs engineers are very good and innovative, they produce hot tech that everyone wants.
But, I would like to see these filesystems to happen. It would only make ZFS better, becuase competition is good for everyone. The products get better, the users will benefit. And if these filesystems turn out to be better than ZFS, I will switch immediately. Why, I know OpenSolaris, it is very similar to Linux. It costs me almost nothing to relearn. OTOH, To go from Win7 to OpenVMS would take much effort.
The problem I have with OpenSolaris is the horrible hardware support, for example, Broadcom 43XX support (from Broadcom themselves) is out in the form of a operating system agnostic hybrid driver and yet has not be ported to OpenSolaris by Sun programmers - one of the most common wireless chipsets out there along with the Intel wireless chipsets. Then there is the issue of HAL being replaced and Sun programmers being caught with their pants down - what are they putting up as a replacement? I see no open discussion about the replacement beyond a couple of people putting out the idea of using a combination of libdevinfo and libsysevent but nothing has developed beyond that. Then there is the issue of making the kernel ticklesss but next to nothing has been done of any sizeable degree to push down power usage and improve battery life on laptops.
If you're talking about OpenSolaris in the capacity of a server - no problems but out side of a large scale server OpenSolaris leaves a lot to be desired. What Linux has is the ability to scale from laptop to desktop to server - I simply don't see that happening in the OpenSolaris world; I see an operating system hobbling along struggling to remain relevant when all the competition has zoomed ahead in leaps and bounds.
Edited 2009-11-05 02:18 UTC