Sun has released the 1/06 update for the Solaris 10. You can check out what’s new (whatever happened to ye good ol’ changelog?) or download it (here I was going to put something about whatever happened to ye good ol’ direct download, but nevermind).
Sun puts out Releases of Solaris at 3 to 6 month intervals, these releases add additional features, provide various bug fixes and support recently released hardware. In the past Sun released Maintenance Updates (MU) which would bring a previous Release up to the Release date of the MU.
An example is if you install Solaris 8 6/00 (June 2000) and apply MU7 you would have the equivalent of installing Solaris 8 2/02 on your machine. One of the features that would be updated in this case is enhancements to Role Based Access Control (RBAC).
You need >128MB RAM, preferably >384, and you need to go through the HCL with a lice-comb. I tried it recently, and it didn’t recognise the sata drives and, more surprisingly, the inter etherexpress 10/100 nic in the initial machine I tried it in. The crappy on board realtech 8139 was found right away though..
Actually, it will run pretty well in 128 Mb. I actually was running it in 128 Mb of RAM on an 400 Mhz system, and it ran reasonably well–better than say, Ubuntu, or one of the other off the shelf “end user” Linux distros that is more concerned with features than speed.
Right. Installation program requires 256MB minimum. But you can overcome this after installation is finished. Remove unneeded services and you Solaris system will run in 128MB easily.
Nexenta OS seems to offer lightweght installer which could be operational in 128MB machines. Tought it is text based and very primitive.
In general, Nexenta OS is a good choice for former GNU/Linux users since Nexenta’s goal is to provide equal software layer for GNU/Solaris system.
Nexenta build on top of OpenSolaris and Ubuntu/Breezy and has 18000+ packages available on the internet.
256MB is the minimum requirement for a Jumpstart graphical install – the amount of memory is dependent on how stripped down you want the system – I’m sure with some tweaking and removal of X, you could get it down to 64MB.
I tried to install Solaris Express some days ago, from a CD…I spent quite sometime to download and burn the first two CDs, and it said I had not enough memory (i.e. 128mb of RAM).
I can’t upgrade more RAM on my toshiba laptop.
Simba what did you do to install it on a 128mb of ram computer ?
I want to say that OpenSuSE refused to install on 128mb of RAM unless I told him a swap partition.
So with solaris maybe it’s only the installer that needs more of 128mb of ram ?
So with solaris maybe it’s only the installer that needs more of 128mb of ram ?
Probably. Try a different install method. I installed it 6 or 8 times under VMware and found that the install runs much faster from a terminal interface than from the GUI. Since I don’t have supported hardware the slow speed may be a VMware issue rather than an installer issue because VMware uses virtual video and disk(s).
With the introduction of GRUB – hopefully with more hardware booting up from the cd and getting through the install without a problem, we’ll start to see more hardware support emerge.
> With the introduction of GRUB – hopefully with more hardware booting up from the cd and getting through the install without a problem, we’ll start to see more hardware support emerge.
I’d start from elimination real mode from x86 CPUs. Who the hell needs that crap ? Screw DOS.
For those who haven’t tried Solairs, I’ve found it to be a superior alternative to Linux for stability, security, and performance. Admittedly, it is not as ‘friendly’ for new users, especially as a desktop <yet> but basically blows Linux away in every other category.
“Admittedly, it is not as ‘friendly’ for new users, especially as a desktop <yet> but basically blows Linux away in every other category.”
Except in logging. Solaris has always had a nightmarish logging scheme, multiple directories under /var and where logs should be, /var/log, it only has a some. I wish that Sun would take some notes from RedHat and put all their logs under /var/log. The other thing that I think linux excels at is ease and speed of installation. Linux takes half the the time to install and Linux identifies most of the hardware out there. The other annoying thing with Solaris is minimization. If you install the minimal install and want to implement Zones, you got to start installing packages. When all is said and done, you are just a few packages away from the End User Distribution. Anyway, I have been running Solaris Express (the latest build) and am quite pleased with the new boot process (none of that real mode drivers crap), the way that Sun has made it very easy to install Solaris along side other OS’es, and the fact that CDE is still there. Go Sun!
“Except in logging. Solaris has always had a nightmarish logging scheme, multiple directories under /var and where logs should be, /var/log, it only has a some.”
I’ve never been a fan of some aspects of Solaris configuration either. For example, it uses an overabundance of “empty file toggle switches” as I like to call them. Basically, files that don’t actually contain anything, but control some aspect of the system’s behavior just by existing or not existing.
I spent a phenomenal amount of time getting Solaris 10 to install because I was trying it on unsupported hardware. The installer does have a ways to go and Sun should improve failure mode checks. One problem was that my DVD drive didn’t support booting, so I got an obscure error message when I tried to boot. When I replaced that drive and tried to boot, my ISO was corrupted (should have checksummed) and I got another obscure error message. So I switched to installing from CD instead. And it didn’t like my video card so it hung on the window manager check. After I replaced that it didn’t like the NIC so it hung on the network check section.
Oi. Check the hardware compatibility list first.
But still there’s a lot to see here. It runs well.
I should also add that distros like Red Hat/Fedora that have the nice GUI console manager are also ahead of Solaris which is pretty much all command line and file editing in terms of settings tweaking.
You obviously haven’t tried and tested both yourself with an open mind. Let’s see, feature set and maturity of the OS… ah hell why waste my time arguing the obvious. Linux fanboys don’t sweat Solaris 10, sweat OpenSolaris and what it’ll bring to Solaris, you’ve got maybe 2-3 years then you’ll probably see Solaris has caught up to Linux in the few areas where Linux is ahead (example, hardware support). Cry and moan all you want, Linux now has serious competition, and you know what…that’s going to be good for everyone. Time for Linux to stop talking the talk, and deliver on the hype as the honeymoon will be over soon.
Try it, for a server it wins hands down, for a desktop, well…it’s got a ways to go but it’s off to a bang of a start.
Well, I would say that these next couple of years will be Solaris’s time to shine as an operating system for the server, Solaris 11, which will be based purely off OpenSolaris, will be the testing ground as to whether Solaris makes a good workstation operating system – personally, thats what I’d love to see.
If the workstation can be won, and the desktop can be won using SUN Ray appliances in the enterprise, then the end user are home will simply migrate to what ever is used at work.
Cry and moan all you want, Linux now has serious competition, and you know what…that’s going to be good for everyone. Time for Linux to stop talking the talk, and deliver on the hype as the honeymoon will be over soon.
Actually, Sun is no better competition than Microsoft, which is no competition at all, sadly. They’re two WMD carrying tech industry terrorists, but their only weapon is money. Unfortunately its hard to kill something like Linux by bribing your way to the top. It just won’t work.
You have to put your money where your mouth is. You have to buckle down and pay those engineers to build you something good. If you don’t, if you put your money into sales or marketing or even R&D in the wrong places, you will lose your competitive edge. Sun has made some good choices to help turn things around, unfortunately they won’t take the next step. They won’t promote FOSS. And that’s sad.
Greed will get you nowhere because I refuse to play that game. I will give away my ideas before I let you patent them. I hate this game, it has hurt so many good people. You’re just affraid to admit it.
“Greed will get you nowhere because I refuse to play that game. I will give away my ideas before I let you patent them. I hate this game, it has hurt so many good people. You’re just affraid to admit it.”
Sounds like someone has been drinking a bit too much socialist Koolaid water. Wow, be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Probably has no problem with how IBM and others have been leaching off the linux developers, the moment they seen greener grass elsewhere they’ll abandon Linux like a fat chick after the prom.
“They won’t promote FOSS. And that’s sad.”
Apparently facts do not enter into your thinking. Few companies have given more to open source than Sun has. When they finish opening the rest of their software stack they will be in the top 2 or 3 companies in regards to ‘donations’ to open source; if not #1. I have no clue what more Sun could do, honestly, they open stuff up and folks still fuss.
I think it’s more FUD against them than anything else.
It appears to many, that are not all wrapped up in zealotry or destroying Redmond, that the Linux folks have basically blown their window of opportunity against Microsoft. Then to top it off they now face serious competition in the *nix space, competition that is only going to heat up in the name of Solaris/OpenSolaris. They had an excellent window with Microsofts delays on the sucessor to XP and by any honest evaluation, they’ve blown the last 2-3 years and time is up as Vista is around the corner.
Linux folks have focused so much on making a desktop contender against windows and all they have to show for the last several years of hype is a slow and bloated (getting more so by the month) Linux desktop to show for it. They’ll fuss abotu windows, but have no problem tolerating installers and drivers far worse than Windows.
Along with this bloat another dirty secret has began to rear it’s ugly head, Linux is no more secure than WinXP or Win Server 2003. This combined with the fact that the Linux honeymoon with the media is about over with and many are starting to question the hype around it, spells a troubled future even without Sun in the equation. If the linux folks were smart, they’d stop in their tracks right now and rethink things as the security situation isn’t going to get any better on it’s present track. If the current linux desktop offerings gain much traction with the average user, it’ll be a security and PR nightmare for Linux.
Sun on the other hand isn’t wasting all it’s energy on trying to still the desktop from the evil Microsoft and have continued to refine one of the most mature, advanced, and robust *nix operating systems out there. 64bit is the future and 64 bit linux is a joke as they have blown too much time worrying about the 32 bit desktop market versus focusing on where the modern datacenter (not someone’s , a market they most likely will never take away from Redmond. When it comes to production grade 64 bit *nix, Solaris 10 is a no brainer for serious work and a decade ahead of Linux.
I love the folks fusing about licensing models. If it was all about being totally open and free, then the BSD license would win hands down, not the GPL. Simple fact is most organizations want a solid OS, solid support, good security, advanced features, a vendor to call for support, and could care the crap less about the finer details of a how open a license is or is not.
Sun has been around for many years and isn’t going away. $100 a year for support (and you only have to pay if you want support) is a bargain. Compare it against the support offerings from IBM, RedHat, or Novell for example. Sun is arguably stronger than ever before in their history, all they have to do is play their cards right, and it appears they have learned from their past mistakes unlike others.
You hear the linux folks fussing about the FUD from Redmond, yet they go out and spread just as much FUD themselves. Amazing to watch.
> Just exactly how does Solaris blow away Linux? I’m trying to think… nope… not even close to coming to me. What a vacuous comment.
Oh please, not another arrogant and ignorant Linux zealot. It has been said a million times already, Solaris beats Linux on all fronts from features (Dtrace, ZFS, Zones, etc.), to performance, to overall solidity and maturity, to plain bang for the buck (Solaris is a lot cheaper than RedHat or SuSE Linux). There is absolutely nothing Linux can claim to its favour compared with Solaris with the exception of meaningless GPL rhetoric. You’re just hopelessly astroturfing for Linux with anything to backup your claims.
Anyone know if SATA support for the typical ASUS mobo (A8V for example) is there yet? Solaris 10 looks so nice, but I sure wish they could support some of the not so new hardware out there. Of course I understand they just don’t go hacking drivers together without considerable testing. It clearly has the potential to be the 64bit Unix/Unix like OS of choice (I’ll piss the linux folks off, but on the 64 bit side of things it’s a hands down win for solaris over linux if you’ve got the hardware it likes) for many if they’d just support some fairly common hardware.
By releasing Solaris on a open licence, Sun hopes to tap the wide opensource developer community. At the same time they have made downloading a binary version of Open Solaris as difficult as possible for the common people. Perhaps Sun is tempting everybody with the word “Open” in Solaris but really expects you to use just Solaris. And if they are able to get you to pay $90 for the same – then it is even better.
If you ask me, Sun’s relationship with the open source community has been suspect in that, it is one of necessity rather than any love for it. It was only when Linux started eating into the market share of Unices (especially solaris) that Sun decided to release it with an Open licence.
Of course, Solaris has its advantages over linux in some areas like security features and profiling tools. But that doesn’t negate what I have said above.
“At the same time they have made downloading a binary version of Open Solaris as difficult as possible”
OpenSolaris is not a distribution, much like Linux is not a distribution. OpenSolaris.org is much like kernel.org. It is source code repository (although OpenSolaris.org is also a community site).
If you are looking for a binary, please consider an Open-Solaris based distribution such as Solaris Express/ Solaris, Shcillix or Nexenta.
“OpenSolaris is not a distribution, much like Linux is not a distribution. OpenSolaris.org is much like kernel.org. It is source code repository (although OpenSolaris.org is also a community site). ”
John,
Thanks for clarifying this issue for me. I was of the (mis)-information that Open Solaris was a complete OS.
Thing to keep in mind with the OpenSolaris based distro’s that are being built up is that they are very much v0.x beta (heck alpha) at the moment. I don’t mean to infer this as a negative. Just that OpenSolaris stuff is very much in it’s infancy and we don’t want folks thinking that they can download an OpenSolaris project, toss it on a PC and have the functionality, completeness, and refinement of a regualr Solaris install. Give it 2-3 years (if it takes that long, folks behind the distro/projects are really making headway fast) and the OpenSolaris stuff should prove to be VERY interesting indeed.
With over 10,000 OpenSolaris community members, it’s safe to say the interest and community is there bigtime and not a fad 😉 Just getting started.
To quote the OpenSolaris homepage:
What is the OpenSolaris Project?
“The OpenSolaris project is an open source operating system, a community development effort and a place for collaboration and conversation about OpenSolaris technology. It is aimed at developers and users who want to develop and improve operating systems. The OpenSolaris technology represents cutting edge operating system design, but the innovation is just getting started!”
“Actually, Sun is no better competition than Microsoft, which is no competition at all, sadly. They’re two WMD carrying tech industry terrorists, but their only weapon is money.”
Shaman is just a troll. He surfs in onto all the sun stories with nothing to offer but the same tired lines about why he hates Sun. If you hate Sun, you hate Sun, but repeating the same crap everytime there is a story about Solaris is probably the reason that a lot of the Sun engineers have stopped posting here. Its the same crap, from the same people, every time.
No one is forcing you to use Solaris Shaman. You say so yourself in your past posts. So how about ignoring the stories that you are only interested in flaming rather than posting pointless comments. It just shows how little you have to contribute to the debate. Just what have you contributed to Linux other than becoming known as the troll who suceeded beyond his wildest dreams. Your kind of advocacy is exactly what Linux does not need.
Could the osnews staff create an ignore user and replies setting so we could all ignore this crap.
Well, i don’t usually get into these fights… but you SUN guys are funny…
Sun never knows what it wants. It all depends on the agreements they make with other companys like IBM and Microsoft. For Microsoft is excelent that Sun starts this Solaris wave, because it’s 1 less competitor. Let’s face it, Solaris 10 is a linux wanna be OS. A guy told that in 2 -3 years Solaris would reach linux in hardware compatability, but the true facts is that in 2 – 3 years Solaris will be 4 – 6 years behind Linux. The abnormal advance of Linux and it’s resistance to jelousy from companies like Sun and others, as reached the point where Linux is accepted mainstream in schools, home and buisness. SUN does not have the carisma to get at schools and homes, it just stays in companys because of it’s good hardware.
The opensolaris is just a social marketing schema that’s fashion these days… And fashions go away real fast.
Someone needs to reed his own spewing, now who is funny?
More like Linux is a Unix wannabe. You apparently are unaware (or don’t want to acknowledge) Solaris history…sad.
Time will tell, the Linux honeymoon is ending, better get used to competing on merit versus hype. Let me guess, 2006 (like 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000 and on and on) will be the year of Linux, yeah right.
We’ll see where the fads and fashions are in a few years.
Well, I’d say the Linux honeymoon actually already ended. It ended when investors lost confidence in it, and both Red Hat and VA stock crashed, Mandrake went bankrupt, and TurboLinux went bankrupt. It ended when Red Hat had to close a number of their offices and layoff a significant portion of their staff, and when VA had to lay off 35% of its staff.
I don’t think Linux is going away. But I don’t think the future is nearly as bright or secure as a lot of the Linux zealots want to believe it is, or would like others to believe it is. Lets not forget that every Linux vendor except Red Hat is losing money. And Red Hat’s profit margin last year was only 20 million after you factor in that 40% of their profit was investment income and not operations income. I predict that both Centos (Free Red Hat Enterprise) and Solaris are going to send Red Hat back down into the red, and they will be operating at a loss once again.
Simba, I can only hope for the day when execs, who know nothing about technology, are once again forced to look at superior technology. The fanboys convinced them that since something is free, it is better. That is true in some cases, but its not the correct way to run a shop.
We have now some shops that are, at the core, full of zealotry and they will be faced with making a conversion if they want to stay in the game. They should be able to convert though, they’ve already been introduced to a hobby system that is similar in feel, but not vision or standards.
Since I am in a feisty mood, why not! Solaris has fine grained Resource Controls in addition to Zones and Containers, the best you can hope for in Linux at the moment is Processor Sets. If you use Oracle and want to save a few bucks on licensing, then Resource Controls are the ticket.
Out of the box Solaris has more ways to install and archive than Linux does (JumpStart, Solaris Flash, WAN Boot, UFS snapshots). Everything I mentioned works on both SPARC and x86, and when ZFS hits the streets, look out!
We are all aware of the fact that Solaris is behind compared to Linux in support for x86 hardware. If you are going to say something bad about Solaris, at least say something that hasn’t been said a thousand times before and sound like you have at least tried it!
Is this the same ‘wanna be’ OS as what your beloved Linux is modeled after? Hrmmm….
Don’t get me wrong, I like Linux and used to use it exclusively for years, but not anymore. For one, when I had a hellish time with the SMP Linux kernel on x86 64-bit, Solaris was smooth and very stable. And now the new features of Solaris are awesome. Zones alone are worth it to me. ZFS is out, zBrand it out…dTrace has been out… all with no equivalent on Linux.
Hardware support is gaining, but no big deal if you have supported hardware. It’s you own fault if you don’t check the HCL first before installing…as even many Windows x64 folks are finding out.
Solaris has, and has had, a great userbase in Universities – and I fully expect this to continue. OpenSolaris is real and not going anywhere. Simply look for Belenix, Schillix, or Nexenta for some great OpenSolaris-based distros that are easy to install.
There is plenty of room for both Solaris AND Linux. Try them both and make up your own mind as to which you prefer, and for what reasons. My personal choice is clear, but I still pay attention to the Linux scene, as it is not without merit.
In the what’s new section, it listed support for an XVR-2500 graphics card. As far as I knew, there was just 500, 600, 1000, 1200, and 4000 numbered cards. I couldn’t find anything on Sun’s web site, but maybe the SPARC workstations will get better graphics than aging 3dlabs Wildcat4 based boards.
I could not find anything specific at Sun either, although there are additional graphic card options for the Ultra 20 when viewed through SunSolve, but the options aren’t available through the Sun Store.
i remember waitng for the school bus in the 60’s and we kids would get in a twist with statement like F*ck*n Ford or Sh*tt*n Chevy. Brand name idolotry is a desease.
Don’t get so full of yourselves Sun fanatics. Sun has DECADES to create the “ultimate” operating system and still they struggle to compete. If it was really the bomb, Solaris would already be dominating the desktop market. Think about it. The best you can do is say it’s better than Linux, an Open Source project, while Microsoft is still kicking their asses. When Solaris has an equivalent marketshare to Windows, then and only then will you have something to huff and puff about. Right now, Sun is a second rate company almost on the ropes and has been stuck there for some time. If their greatest claim to fame ever is that “we did it better than Linus”, wtf is so impressive about that??
Um… You can’t compare Windows to Solaris. Solaris is not, and never has been intended to be a home user desktop. It’s a high end system intended for servers and the workstations of power users–scientists, engineers, and developers.
And actually, Sun’s greatest claim to fame is “We invented Java, which became the most popular programming language in the world, is installed on billions of devices, and handles more e-commerce transactions than all other Web application technologies combined.
Maybe you can share with us where Sun announed their intent to go after the desktop market. Because to the best of my knowledge (and this includes over two years of testing Solaris 10) is that Sun with JDS is to provide a corporate desktop. That is why there are tools provided with Solaris 10 to configure desktops at the “domain” level:
Since you’re obviously a linux fanboy, your OS has had a good decade and where is it? Not much better shape. Your arguement cuts both ways. Never mind the fact that a great deal of what Linux (and other nix os’es have) comes from the folks at Solaris and BSD, plenty of claim to fame. Linux on the other had is pretty much a copy of other already in place ideas/techniques, so what is the big deal there bud?
And who crowned you the OS zealot police? I noticed that there isn’t a similar post in the Windows article here, so is all your banter meant for all posters here, or is focused at the “Solaris fanboys”?
If you do not like what is discussed here, nobody is holding a gun to your head to read it. Read another post about something you are interested in. We don’t ask for the trolls to post their crap here, but they do anyhow despite numerous attempts by many here (including the OSNews staff) to prevent it. Some of us are more than a little tired of the children who have nothing better to do than troll. You might want to focus your attention on them instead!
>Sun has DECADES to create the “ultimate” operating system and still they struggle to compete.
Well I think Sun spent a lot (and I mean a real lot) of time working on features that are more useful for larger companies, and features for particular hardware, and features that you would not use on a workstation.
For example the man page for the Solaris C compiler goes on for maybe 20 pages. It is the most complicated and optimized C compiler ever written, bar none.
If you look at the ifconfig utility it is also incredibly sophisticated. Much more sophisticated than anyone would ever need for just a workstation. ifconfig is meant as an interface for a very complicated router network.
Many utilities have entire scripting languages built into them. You don’t need this for small/medium businesses, but you do use features like this when you have a large fleet of Solaris servers.
Sun spent a lot of time, money, and man-power building hardware and software for companies that would buy dozens of SPARC servers and workstations at a time. This was when companies paid extra for SPARC hardware. No more. Now Sun is emphasizing software and services, and not emphasizing expensive SPARC boxes.
Its different for Sun now. They are still such a large company that understanding where they came from, and who they want to be takes a lot of effort. Like Solaris, there’s a lot there, and its not really for the casual user who wants to just download and play.
“Um… You can’t compare Windows to Solaris. Solaris is not, and never has been intended to be a home user desktop. It’s a high end system intended for servers and the workstations of power users–scientists, engineers, and developers.”
Oh so they would sink that much research into a DE like Looking Glass just for the corporate user? Why bother when you’ve already appropriated Gnome and renamed it JDS? The point still remains. They have a long way to go to wipe Microsoft off the corporate desktop.
“And who crowned you the OS zealot police? I noticed that there isn’t a similar post in the Windows article here, so is all your banter meant for all posters here, or is focused at the “Solaris fanboys”?”
Nobody. I’m not even a Linux user. And I’ve berated Windows fanatics many times in different forums. So many times in fact that I just plain got tired of it.Mac fanatics too. I’ve chewed out Linux zealots for invading BSD threads and vice versa. The point is if you’re going to bitch about Linux zealots, you shouldn’t be zealots yourselves. Because after you all get done flaming the Linux zealots, and you look back at your posts…you sound just like them. Kind of hard for you to take the moral highground when you’re frothing at the mouth yourselves.
So are you pointing out anyone in particular, or just complaining in general. I don’t claim anything, I post to discuss points and counterpoints and occasionally help people if I can.
“And actually, Sun’s greatest claim to fame is “We invented Java, which became the most popular programming language in the world, is installed on billions of devices, and handles more e-commerce transactions than all other Web application technologies combined.”
Well that would be a shame if that was their greatest claim considering all the time and money they’ve put into Linux, Solaris, StarOffice, etc not to mention developing SPARC. It’s not like they make enough off of Java to just do that or even to give up selling hardware.
Submitted by 
major.minor.bugfix release naming strategy?
Seriously? WTF is Solaris 10 1/06?
Sun puts out Releases of Solaris at 3 to 6 month intervals, these releases add additional features, provide various bug fixes and support recently released hardware. In the past Sun released Maintenance Updates (MU) which would bring a previous Release up to the Release date of the MU.
An example is if you install Solaris 8 6/00 (June 2000) and apply MU7 you would have the equivalent of installing Solaris 8 2/02 on your machine. One of the features that would be updated in this case is enhancements to Role Based Access Control (RBAC).
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-0547/6mgbdbsmb?a=view
how does this relate to solaris express 12/05 that I just downloaded ?
I had always wanted to install and try sun solaris. How easy is it to install it. Is it as easy as linux ?
Very easy, especially now with Solaris 10. If you can install Linux, you can install Solaris 10.
Solaris 10 is very easy to install but if you want to try the easiest method then install it on a virtual machine.
Just follow this great How-To:
http://www.virtualization.info/2005/11/how-to-install-sun-solaris-1…
1. solaris 10/06 is an update to the released stable 10
2. solaris express is a tech preview that is released montly by sun
3. solaris community edition (CE) is very cuting edge and dervided from opensolaris. it is less polished than express.
by the way i like “what;s new” – makes tings easy to see quciky. maybe other projects could od tehsame?
t
Provided that you’ve got supported hardware.
You need >128MB RAM, preferably >384, and you need to go through the HCL with a lice-comb. I tried it recently, and it didn’t recognise the sata drives and, more surprisingly, the inter etherexpress 10/100 nic in the initial machine I tried it in. The crappy on board realtech 8139 was found right away though..
Sun’s got a LOONG way to go wrt hardware support.
You need >128MB RAM, preferably >384.
Actually, it will run pretty well in 128 Mb. I actually was running it in 128 Mb of RAM on an 400 Mhz system, and it ran reasonably well–better than say, Ubuntu, or one of the other off the shelf “end user” Linux distros that is more concerned with features than speed.
Edited 2005-12-22 01:17
I don’t know if/how it’s enforced, but as of this release 256MB is the minimum requirement:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-0552/6mgbi4fgb?a=view#gbgmm
Right. Installation program requires 256MB minimum. But you can overcome this after installation is finished. Remove unneeded services and you Solaris system will run in 128MB easily.
Nexenta OS seems to offer lightweght installer which could be operational in 128MB machines. Tought it is text based and very primitive.
In general, Nexenta OS is a good choice for former GNU/Linux users since Nexenta’s goal is to provide equal software layer for GNU/Solaris system.
Nexenta build on top of OpenSolaris and Ubuntu/Breezy and has 18000+ packages available on the internet.
You could try it at http://www.nexenta.com
“I don’t know if/how it’s enforced, but as of this release 256MB is the minimum requirement:”
It’s not enforced, unless something has changed even since earlier releases of Solaris 10. I ran Solaris 10 in 128 Mb and did reasonably well.
256MB is the minimum requirement for a Jumpstart graphical install – the amount of memory is dependent on how stripped down you want the system – I’m sure with some tweaking and removal of X, you could get it down to 64MB.
I tried to install Solaris Express some days ago, from a CD…I spent quite sometime to download and burn the first two CDs, and it said I had not enough memory (i.e. 128mb of RAM).
I can’t upgrade more RAM on my toshiba laptop.
Simba what did you do to install it on a 128mb of ram computer ?
I want to say that OpenSuSE refused to install on 128mb of RAM unless I told him a swap partition.
So with solaris maybe it’s only the installer that needs more of 128mb of ram ?
So with solaris maybe it’s only the installer that needs more of 128mb of ram ?
Probably. Try a different install method. I installed it 6 or 8 times under VMware and found that the install runs much faster from a terminal interface than from the GUI. Since I don’t have supported hardware the slow speed may be a VMware issue rather than an installer issue because VMware uses virtual video and disk(s).
Provided that you’ve got supported hardware.
Which shouldn’t be a problem, considering:
Elimination of all realmode drivers
With the introduction of GRUB – hopefully with more hardware booting up from the cd and getting through the install without a problem, we’ll start to see more hardware support emerge.
> Elimination of all realmode drivers
> With the introduction of GRUB – hopefully with more hardware booting up from the cd and getting through the install without a problem, we’ll start to see more hardware support emerge.
I’d start from elimination real mode from x86 CPUs. Who the hell needs that crap ? Screw DOS.
This is wonderful news. I will download it this weekend and wipe out my main machine. I have been waiting for this update like no one knows.
For those who haven’t tried Solairs, I’ve found it to be a superior alternative to Linux for stability, security, and performance. Admittedly, it is not as ‘friendly’ for new users, especially as a desktop <yet> but basically blows Linux away in every other category.
“Admittedly, it is not as ‘friendly’ for new users, especially as a desktop <yet> but basically blows Linux away in every other category.”
Except in logging. Solaris has always had a nightmarish logging scheme, multiple directories under /var and where logs should be, /var/log, it only has a some. I wish that Sun would take some notes from RedHat and put all their logs under /var/log. The other thing that I think linux excels at is ease and speed of installation. Linux takes half the the time to install and Linux identifies most of the hardware out there. The other annoying thing with Solaris is minimization. If you install the minimal install and want to implement Zones, you got to start installing packages. When all is said and done, you are just a few packages away from the End User Distribution. Anyway, I have been running Solaris Express (the latest build) and am quite pleased with the new boot process (none of that real mode drivers crap), the way that Sun has made it very easy to install Solaris along side other OS’es, and the fact that CDE is still there. Go Sun!
“Except in logging. Solaris has always had a nightmarish logging scheme, multiple directories under /var and where logs should be, /var/log, it only has a some.”
I’ve never been a fan of some aspects of Solaris configuration either. For example, it uses an overabundance of “empty file toggle switches” as I like to call them. Basically, files that don’t actually contain anything, but control some aspect of the system’s behavior just by existing or not existing.
Did you ever think of editing /etc/syslog.conf and changing the location of where the files are written to your preferences then HUP’ing syslog?
Why don’t they give out CDs like Canonical is doing with Ubuntu ? Giving free CDs of Solaris is a sure way of getting people to try out this OS.
One of the major factors Ubuntu is this popular is because of the free CDs that anybody around the world could order from their site.
I feel that Sun should also go the Ubuntu way.
I spent a phenomenal amount of time getting Solaris 10 to install because I was trying it on unsupported hardware. The installer does have a ways to go and Sun should improve failure mode checks. One problem was that my DVD drive didn’t support booting, so I got an obscure error message when I tried to boot. When I replaced that drive and tried to boot, my ISO was corrupted (should have checksummed) and I got another obscure error message. So I switched to installing from CD instead. And it didn’t like my video card so it hung on the window manager check. After I replaced that it didn’t like the NIC so it hung on the network check section.
Oi. Check the hardware compatibility list first.
But still there’s a lot to see here. It runs well.
I should also add that distros like Red Hat/Fedora that have the nice GUI console manager are also ahead of Solaris which is pretty much all command line and file editing in terms of settings tweaking.
Did you try the Solaris Management Console (SMC), or webmin if you performed a Full Distribution installation?
Just exactly how does Solaris blow away Linux? I’m trying to think… nope… not even close to coming to me. What a vacuous comment.
Sun astroturfing again? I wouldn’t bet against it.
You obviously haven’t tried and tested both yourself with an open mind. Let’s see, feature set and maturity of the OS… ah hell why waste my time arguing the obvious. Linux fanboys don’t sweat Solaris 10, sweat OpenSolaris and what it’ll bring to Solaris, you’ve got maybe 2-3 years then you’ll probably see Solaris has caught up to Linux in the few areas where Linux is ahead (example, hardware support). Cry and moan all you want, Linux now has serious competition, and you know what…that’s going to be good for everyone. Time for Linux to stop talking the talk, and deliver on the hype as the honeymoon will be over soon.
Try it, for a server it wins hands down, for a desktop, well…it’s got a ways to go but it’s off to a bang of a start.
JT
Well, I would say that these next couple of years will be Solaris’s time to shine as an operating system for the server, Solaris 11, which will be based purely off OpenSolaris, will be the testing ground as to whether Solaris makes a good workstation operating system – personally, thats what I’d love to see.
If the workstation can be won, and the desktop can be won using SUN Ray appliances in the enterprise, then the end user are home will simply migrate to what ever is used at work.
Cry and moan all you want, Linux now has serious competition, and you know what…that’s going to be good for everyone. Time for Linux to stop talking the talk, and deliver on the hype as the honeymoon will be over soon.
Actually, Sun is no better competition than Microsoft, which is no competition at all, sadly. They’re two WMD carrying tech industry terrorists, but their only weapon is money. Unfortunately its hard to kill something like Linux by bribing your way to the top. It just won’t work.
You have to put your money where your mouth is. You have to buckle down and pay those engineers to build you something good. If you don’t, if you put your money into sales or marketing or even R&D in the wrong places, you will lose your competitive edge. Sun has made some good choices to help turn things around, unfortunately they won’t take the next step. They won’t promote FOSS. And that’s sad.
Greed will get you nowhere because I refuse to play that game. I will give away my ideas before I let you patent them. I hate this game, it has hurt so many good people. You’re just affraid to admit it.
“Greed will get you nowhere because I refuse to play that game. I will give away my ideas before I let you patent them. I hate this game, it has hurt so many good people. You’re just affraid to admit it.”
Sounds like someone has been drinking a bit too much socialist Koolaid water. Wow, be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Probably has no problem with how IBM and others have been leaching off the linux developers, the moment they seen greener grass elsewhere they’ll abandon Linux like a fat chick after the prom.
“They won’t promote FOSS. And that’s sad.”
Apparently facts do not enter into your thinking. Few companies have given more to open source than Sun has. When they finish opening the rest of their software stack they will be in the top 2 or 3 companies in regards to ‘donations’ to open source; if not #1. I have no clue what more Sun could do, honestly, they open stuff up and folks still fuss.
I think it’s more FUD against them than anything else.
It appears to many, that are not all wrapped up in zealotry or destroying Redmond, that the Linux folks have basically blown their window of opportunity against Microsoft. Then to top it off they now face serious competition in the *nix space, competition that is only going to heat up in the name of Solaris/OpenSolaris. They had an excellent window with Microsofts delays on the sucessor to XP and by any honest evaluation, they’ve blown the last 2-3 years and time is up as Vista is around the corner.
Linux folks have focused so much on making a desktop contender against windows and all they have to show for the last several years of hype is a slow and bloated (getting more so by the month) Linux desktop to show for it. They’ll fuss abotu windows, but have no problem tolerating installers and drivers far worse than Windows.
Along with this bloat another dirty secret has began to rear it’s ugly head, Linux is no more secure than WinXP or Win Server 2003. This combined with the fact that the Linux honeymoon with the media is about over with and many are starting to question the hype around it, spells a troubled future even without Sun in the equation. If the linux folks were smart, they’d stop in their tracks right now and rethink things as the security situation isn’t going to get any better on it’s present track. If the current linux desktop offerings gain much traction with the average user, it’ll be a security and PR nightmare for Linux.
Sun on the other hand isn’t wasting all it’s energy on trying to still the desktop from the evil Microsoft and have continued to refine one of the most mature, advanced, and robust *nix operating systems out there. 64bit is the future and 64 bit linux is a joke as they have blown too much time worrying about the 32 bit desktop market versus focusing on where the modern datacenter (not someone’s , a market they most likely will never take away from Redmond. When it comes to production grade 64 bit *nix, Solaris 10 is a no brainer for serious work and a decade ahead of Linux.
I love the folks fusing about licensing models. If it was all about being totally open and free, then the BSD license would win hands down, not the GPL. Simple fact is most organizations want a solid OS, solid support, good security, advanced features, a vendor to call for support, and could care the crap less about the finer details of a how open a license is or is not.
Sun has been around for many years and isn’t going away. $100 a year for support (and you only have to pay if you want support) is a bargain. Compare it against the support offerings from IBM, RedHat, or Novell for example. Sun is arguably stronger than ever before in their history, all they have to do is play their cards right, and it appears they have learned from their past mistakes unlike others.
You hear the linux folks fussing about the FUD from Redmond, yet they go out and spread just as much FUD themselves. Amazing to watch.
> Just exactly how does Solaris blow away Linux? I’m trying to think… nope… not even close to coming to me. What a vacuous comment.
Oh please, not another arrogant and ignorant Linux zealot. It has been said a million times already, Solaris beats Linux on all fronts from features (Dtrace, ZFS, Zones, etc.), to performance, to overall solidity and maturity, to plain bang for the buck (Solaris is a lot cheaper than RedHat or SuSE Linux). There is absolutely nothing Linux can claim to its favour compared with Solaris with the exception of meaningless GPL rhetoric. You’re just hopelessly astroturfing for Linux with anything to backup your claims.
> Just exactly how does Solaris blow away Linux?
Better debugging facilities
Better performance tuning facilities
Security
Scalability
Stability
Better file system
I could keep going. But those are just the ones that instantly come to mind.
Anyone know if SATA support for the typical ASUS mobo (A8V for example) is there yet? Solaris 10 looks so nice, but I sure wish they could support some of the not so new hardware out there. Of course I understand they just don’t go hacking drivers together without considerable testing. It clearly has the potential to be the 64bit Unix/Unix like OS of choice (I’ll piss the linux folks off, but on the 64 bit side of things it’s a hands down win for solaris over linux if you’ve got the hardware it likes) for many if they’d just support some fairly common hardware.
TIA
JT
By releasing Solaris on a open licence, Sun hopes to tap the wide opensource developer community. At the same time they have made downloading a binary version of Open Solaris as difficult as possible for the common people. Perhaps Sun is tempting everybody with the word “Open” in Solaris but really expects you to use just Solaris. And if they are able to get you to pay $90 for the same – then it is even better.
If you ask me, Sun’s relationship with the open source community has been suspect in that, it is one of necessity rather than any love for it. It was only when Linux started eating into the market share of Unices (especially solaris) that Sun decided to release it with an Open licence.
Of course, Solaris has its advantages over linux in some areas like security features and profiling tools. But that doesn’t negate what I have said above.
“At the same time they have made downloading a binary version of Open Solaris as difficult as possible”
OpenSolaris is not a distribution, much like Linux is not a distribution. OpenSolaris.org is much like kernel.org. It is source code repository (although OpenSolaris.org is also a community site).
If you are looking for a binary, please consider an Open-Solaris based distribution such as Solaris Express/ Solaris, Shcillix or Nexenta.
Hope this helps.
John Clingan
Sun Microsystems
“OpenSolaris is not a distribution, much like Linux is not a distribution. OpenSolaris.org is much like kernel.org. It is source code repository (although OpenSolaris.org is also a community site). ”
John,
Thanks for clarifying this issue for me. I was of the (mis)-information that Open Solaris was a complete OS.
Thing to keep in mind with the OpenSolaris based distro’s that are being built up is that they are very much v0.x beta (heck alpha) at the moment. I don’t mean to infer this as a negative. Just that OpenSolaris stuff is very much in it’s infancy and we don’t want folks thinking that they can download an OpenSolaris project, toss it on a PC and have the functionality, completeness, and refinement of a regualr Solaris install. Give it 2-3 years (if it takes that long, folks behind the distro/projects are really making headway fast) and the OpenSolaris stuff should prove to be VERY interesting indeed.
With over 10,000 OpenSolaris community members, it’s safe to say the interest and community is there bigtime and not a fad 😉 Just getting started.
To quote the OpenSolaris homepage:
What is the OpenSolaris Project?
“The OpenSolaris project is an open source operating system, a community development effort and a place for collaboration and conversation about OpenSolaris technology. It is aimed at developers and users who want to develop and improve operating systems. The OpenSolaris technology represents cutting edge operating system design, but the innovation is just getting started!”
“Actually, Sun is no better competition than Microsoft, which is no competition at all, sadly. They’re two WMD carrying tech industry terrorists, but their only weapon is money.”
Yep… And you are just a brainwashed FOSS zealot.
Next please?
Yep… And you are just a brainwashed FOSS zealot.
Next please?
They have mental disorders and need professional help. It’s not their fault.
Shaman is just a troll. He surfs in onto all the sun stories with nothing to offer but the same tired lines about why he hates Sun. If you hate Sun, you hate Sun, but repeating the same crap everytime there is a story about Solaris is probably the reason that a lot of the Sun engineers have stopped posting here. Its the same crap, from the same people, every time.
No one is forcing you to use Solaris Shaman. You say so yourself in your past posts. So how about ignoring the stories that you are only interested in flaming rather than posting pointless comments. It just shows how little you have to contribute to the debate. Just what have you contributed to Linux other than becoming known as the troll who suceeded beyond his wildest dreams. Your kind of advocacy is exactly what Linux does not need.
Could the osnews staff create an ignore user and replies setting so we could all ignore this crap.
Exactly, Shaman has had his time and we have heard enough of his whining. Ban him, I’m sure most of us wouldn’t mind.
Well, i don’t usually get into these fights… but you SUN guys are funny…
Sun never knows what it wants. It all depends on the agreements they make with other companys like IBM and Microsoft. For Microsoft is excelent that Sun starts this Solaris wave, because it’s 1 less competitor. Let’s face it, Solaris 10 is a linux wanna be OS. A guy told that in 2 -3 years Solaris would reach linux in hardware compatability, but the true facts is that in 2 – 3 years Solaris will be 4 – 6 years behind Linux. The abnormal advance of Linux and it’s resistance to jelousy from companies like Sun and others, as reached the point where Linux is accepted mainstream in schools, home and buisness. SUN does not have the carisma to get at schools and homes, it just stays in companys because of it’s good hardware.
The opensolaris is just a social marketing schema that’s fashion these days… And fashions go away real fast.
Someone needs to reed his own spewing, now who is funny?
More like Linux is a Unix wannabe. You apparently are unaware (or don’t want to acknowledge) Solaris history…sad.
Time will tell, the Linux honeymoon is ending, better get used to competing on merit versus hype. Let me guess, 2006 (like 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000 and on and on) will be the year of Linux, yeah right.
We’ll see where the fads and fashions are in a few years.
How’s them apples?
> Time will tell, the Linux honeymoon is ending,
Well, I’d say the Linux honeymoon actually already ended. It ended when investors lost confidence in it, and both Red Hat and VA stock crashed, Mandrake went bankrupt, and TurboLinux went bankrupt. It ended when Red Hat had to close a number of their offices and layoff a significant portion of their staff, and when VA had to lay off 35% of its staff.
I don’t think Linux is going away. But I don’t think the future is nearly as bright or secure as a lot of the Linux zealots want to believe it is, or would like others to believe it is. Lets not forget that every Linux vendor except Red Hat is losing money. And Red Hat’s profit margin last year was only 20 million after you factor in that 40% of their profit was investment income and not operations income. I predict that both Centos (Free Red Hat Enterprise) and Solaris are going to send Red Hat back down into the red, and they will be operating at a loss once again.
Edited 2005-12-22 16:42
Simba, I can only hope for the day when execs, who know nothing about technology, are once again forced to look at superior technology. The fanboys convinced them that since something is free, it is better. That is true in some cases, but its not the correct way to run a shop.
We have now some shops that are, at the core, full of zealotry and they will be faced with making a conversion if they want to stay in the game. They should be able to convert though, they’ve already been introduced to a hobby system that is similar in feel, but not vision or standards.
Since I am in a feisty mood, why not! Solaris has fine grained Resource Controls in addition to Zones and Containers, the best you can hope for in Linux at the moment is Processor Sets. If you use Oracle and want to save a few bucks on licensing, then Resource Controls are the ticket.
Out of the box Solaris has more ways to install and archive than Linux does (JumpStart, Solaris Flash, WAN Boot, UFS snapshots). Everything I mentioned works on both SPARC and x86, and when ZFS hits the streets, look out!
We are all aware of the fact that Solaris is behind compared to Linux in support for x86 hardware. If you are going to say something bad about Solaris, at least say something that hasn’t been said a thousand times before and sound like you have at least tried it!
“…a wanna be OS”??
Is this the same ‘wanna be’ OS as what your beloved Linux is modeled after? Hrmmm….
Don’t get me wrong, I like Linux and used to use it exclusively for years, but not anymore. For one, when I had a hellish time with the SMP Linux kernel on x86 64-bit, Solaris was smooth and very stable. And now the new features of Solaris are awesome. Zones alone are worth it to me. ZFS is out, zBrand it out…dTrace has been out… all with no equivalent on Linux.
Hardware support is gaining, but no big deal if you have supported hardware. It’s you own fault if you don’t check the HCL first before installing…as even many Windows x64 folks are finding out.
Solaris has, and has had, a great userbase in Universities – and I fully expect this to continue. OpenSolaris is real and not going anywhere. Simply look for Belenix, Schillix, or Nexenta for some great OpenSolaris-based distros that are easy to install.
There is plenty of room for both Solaris AND Linux. Try them both and make up your own mind as to which you prefer, and for what reasons. My personal choice is clear, but I still pay attention to the Linux scene, as it is not without merit.
In the what’s new section, it listed support for an XVR-2500 graphics card. As far as I knew, there was just 500, 600, 1000, 1200, and 4000 numbered cards. I couldn’t find anything on Sun’s web site, but maybe the SPARC workstations will get better graphics than aging 3dlabs Wildcat4 based boards.
I found this on SunSolve:
http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-21-120928-03-…
I could not find anything specific at Sun either, although there are additional graphic card options for the Ultra 20 when viewed through SunSolve, but the options aren’t available through the Sun Store.
i remember waitng for the school bus in the 60’s and we kids would get in a twist with statement like F*ck*n Ford or Sh*tt*n Chevy. Brand name idolotry is a desease.
javajazz
Don’t get so full of yourselves Sun fanatics. Sun has DECADES to create the “ultimate” operating system and still they struggle to compete. If it was really the bomb, Solaris would already be dominating the desktop market. Think about it. The best you can do is say it’s better than Linux, an Open Source project, while Microsoft is still kicking their asses. When Solaris has an equivalent marketshare to Windows, then and only then will you have something to huff and puff about. Right now, Sun is a second rate company almost on the ropes and has been stuck there for some time. If their greatest claim to fame ever is that “we did it better than Linus”, wtf is so impressive about that??
Um… You can’t compare Windows to Solaris. Solaris is not, and never has been intended to be a home user desktop. It’s a high end system intended for servers and the workstations of power users–scientists, engineers, and developers.
And actually, Sun’s greatest claim to fame is “We invented Java, which became the most popular programming language in the world, is installed on billions of devices, and handles more e-commerce transactions than all other Web application technologies combined.
Maybe you can share with us where Sun announed their intent to go after the desktop market. Because to the best of my knowledge (and this includes over two years of testing Solaris 10) is that Sun with JDS is to provide a corporate desktop. That is why there are tools provided with Solaris 10 to configure desktops at the “domain” level:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1221.1
So if you are going to talk about Solaris, get your facts straight.
Since you’re obviously a linux fanboy, your OS has had a good decade and where is it? Not much better shape. Your arguement cuts both ways. Never mind the fact that a great deal of what Linux (and other nix os’es have) comes from the folks at Solaris and BSD, plenty of claim to fame. Linux on the other had is pretty much a copy of other already in place ideas/techniques, so what is the big deal there bud?
Yes, zealots are annoying. That incluedes Linux, Solaris, Windows, Mac, BSD, BeOS, etc zealots of all kinds. You guys are no different.
And who crowned you the OS zealot police? I noticed that there isn’t a similar post in the Windows article here, so is all your banter meant for all posters here, or is focused at the “Solaris fanboys”?
If you do not like what is discussed here, nobody is holding a gun to your head to read it. Read another post about something you are interested in. We don’t ask for the trolls to post their crap here, but they do anyhow despite numerous attempts by many here (including the OSNews staff) to prevent it. Some of us are more than a little tired of the children who have nothing better to do than troll. You might want to focus your attention on them instead!
Try using the command line installed (forget what it is called)
To install Solaris without the graphical installer select Text Only from the installation choices.
Booted from the 1st CD and select Solaris.
The it says:
Booting `Solaris’
etc
module /boot/x86-miniroot
…….
Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory
I have 128mb of ram.
>Sun has DECADES to create the “ultimate” operating system and still they struggle to compete.
Well I think Sun spent a lot (and I mean a real lot) of time working on features that are more useful for larger companies, and features for particular hardware, and features that you would not use on a workstation.
For example the man page for the Solaris C compiler goes on for maybe 20 pages. It is the most complicated and optimized C compiler ever written, bar none.
If you look at the ifconfig utility it is also incredibly sophisticated. Much more sophisticated than anyone would ever need for just a workstation. ifconfig is meant as an interface for a very complicated router network.
Many utilities have entire scripting languages built into them. You don’t need this for small/medium businesses, but you do use features like this when you have a large fleet of Solaris servers.
Sun spent a lot of time, money, and man-power building hardware and software for companies that would buy dozens of SPARC servers and workstations at a time. This was when companies paid extra for SPARC hardware. No more. Now Sun is emphasizing software and services, and not emphasizing expensive SPARC boxes.
Its different for Sun now. They are still such a large company that understanding where they came from, and who they want to be takes a lot of effort. Like Solaris, there’s a lot there, and its not really for the casual user who wants to just download and play.
“Um… You can’t compare Windows to Solaris. Solaris is not, and never has been intended to be a home user desktop. It’s a high end system intended for servers and the workstations of power users–scientists, engineers, and developers.”
Oh so they would sink that much research into a DE like Looking Glass just for the corporate user? Why bother when you’ve already appropriated Gnome and renamed it JDS? The point still remains. They have a long way to go to wipe Microsoft off the corporate desktop.
“And who crowned you the OS zealot police? I noticed that there isn’t a similar post in the Windows article here, so is all your banter meant for all posters here, or is focused at the “Solaris fanboys”?”
Nobody. I’m not even a Linux user. And I’ve berated Windows fanatics many times in different forums. So many times in fact that I just plain got tired of it.Mac fanatics too. I’ve chewed out Linux zealots for invading BSD threads and vice versa. The point is if you’re going to bitch about Linux zealots, you shouldn’t be zealots yourselves. Because after you all get done flaming the Linux zealots, and you look back at your posts…you sound just like them. Kind of hard for you to take the moral highground when you’re frothing at the mouth yourselves.
So are you pointing out anyone in particular, or just complaining in general. I don’t claim anything, I post to discuss points and counterpoints and occasionally help people if I can.
“And actually, Sun’s greatest claim to fame is “We invented Java, which became the most popular programming language in the world, is installed on billions of devices, and handles more e-commerce transactions than all other Web application technologies combined.”
Well that would be a shame if that was their greatest claim considering all the time and money they’ve put into Linux, Solaris, StarOffice, etc not to mention developing SPARC. It’s not like they make enough off of Java to just do that or even to give up selling hardware.