Ending nearly a year of debate with its users, Sun made available on its Web site an early access version of its Solaris 9 operating system that runs on Intel Corp. compatible processors. This is a beta version and it costs $20 USD to download. If you happen to get your hands to the beta and you would like to write a review of Solaris 9-x86, please do so, we will be happy to post it for you on OSNews.
Sun Posts Download of Solaris 9 x86
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“We’ve had some issues in the past about our commitment to this product,” said John Loiacono, vice president of operating platforms at Sun. “Well, now we are jumping in with two feet on this thing. We are going hog wild. You are going to see over the next two to three months additional enhancements to Solaris as a whole, which will have Solaris x86 as a key component.”
Hell yes! Punish Linux.
I realize it’s not much, but why charge for a beta? Why charge at all, I remember when I could get 8 for free. Those were the good ol day’s when the weren’t money grubing.
> I realize it’s not much, but why charge for a beta?
… Coz Microsoft does the same: Sun is simply carrying the ‘copy’ game too far!
SUNS justification is that bandwidth doesn’t come cheaply, and simply offering it as a free download will cost a bundle as every cheapskate out there will leech away.
However, on the other hand, they should have given the iso’s to people like planetmirror, mirror.aarnet.edu.au and so forth, thus, the cost is 0 to SUN.
I paid exactly $0 for .Net server RC1 (and expects the same for RC2), downloading from MS’s website.
It’s hard to justify when I can download 100 other Linux Distro’s for free that have a better chance on running pcmcia network cards. There HCL list point’s back to 8, that doesn’t help much.
BTW, you can download Sparc for free? What, they get there money back for Sparc’s bought off of ebay? I’m just liveing in a money grubing world with a Linux attitude. “The best things in life are free.” That would be Linux. Of course, I do pay for SuSE, but I know that it works. I’m willing to support(spend) on one linux company, the rest of them I download for free and test them out. And “yes” SuSE has some shady business practices about getting the free goods out there late, but they have an excellent product.
It’s only $20! And if you don’t want to pay for the beta, then wait for the final release. By charging a small amount they make sure they don’t waist bandwidth on people who have no intention to buy/use the final version.
When you pay developers to create a product you get many benifits, with one slight draw back – you have to pay them! In order to do this they must generate an income. They’re not going to do this by giving away free software. And sure it’s beta sowtware anyway, but $20 to Sun’s target market is a very minimal price to pay to start testing Solaris 9. And why should it waste time, energy, and money on those people who aren’t likely to generate much income for them (ie those who won’t pay $20 for the beta software).
If you want free software, then get linux. If you want a true production quality unix then be prepared to pay for it.
although I admit I’m not keen on paying for an unsupported beta. As was stated above, they could have farmed out the download to any number of mirror sites worldwide that would have hosted it for free.
@tantalic : Linux is a production quality unix. As far as I’m aware Sun and Microsoft are the only companies that charge for unsupported beta OSes.
Microsoft does not charge for Windows Betas/RCs. I know this because I have a half-dozen CDs with Windows .NET RC1 (Enterprise,Web Server and Standard) that I got for free while attending some free Microsoft conferences. And Watcher just finished telling us that you can download them for free from MS also.
“Linux is a production quality unix.”
Lunix can’t touch Solaris in terms of reliability, scalability, advanced features and maturity – even on ‘lowly’ Intel hardware (Solaris is slower on IDE, right now, but it is plenty fast on SCSI).
I don’t know if they still do this but I believe that the M$ OS betas releases would only work for a max of one year.
And some of their release candidates were only good for a few months.
You are absolutely correct on this point. MS RCs and Betas are normally set to ‘expire’ after 120 or 180 days. I have never seen one that could go a whole year though, myself, but I imagine they exist for people who are in the registered beta-tester programs.
All of MS’s other product betas are also the same in this regard, except they usually expire after only 30 or 60 days (Exchange, SQL Server, Office, Project, etc.).
Also, if it matters to you (which I kinda doubt), you can have Microsoft mail you any evaluation software they have on CD for just the cost of the postage if you go to their website and request it (if your internet connection is too slow for a download to be practical).
“All of MS’s other product betas are also the same in this regard, except they usually expire after only 30 or 60 days (Exchange, SQL Server, Office, Project, etc.).”
I am actually referring to evaluation versions here, not betas per se, which are probably longer.
That I did know as I got an eval of Visio 2000 Enterprise from them – needed a version that could draw a network using auto-discovery.
We’ll see how this x86 beta plays – I’ll try installing it on the dual-proc box that currently has Solaris 8 10/01.
Christ, get some perspective, people. It’s $20. If you want it, pay the money and download it. If you don’t want to, well don’t. $20 is a pretty minimal amount, cheapskates.
RMS’s evil communist plans are working, nobody wants to pay for software anymore ! Viva la revolution 😉
Evaluations are only 120 days. RC’s (eg .NET server currently) lasts 360 days! By the time that thing expires you can replace it with the next windows release.
Thats not communism, that’s the consummer side of capitalism, market forces. We want the best for the least money, and you can’t get any less the no money at all.
I’d say you got what you paid for.
wouldnt it be were all given windows 95, unless you know a guy, then you get windows ME.
Like I said in the begining, $20 isn’t much, BUT it is for a beta copy of Solaris, that has NO HCL. To know wether or not it will work on your hardware. I think we can all agree that Solaris 8 x86 doesn’t run on much AND that it comes NO were near the speed or quality of Linux on Intel processors. Solaris x86 runs like a DOG with 2 legs!
Yes, I think Solaris for Sparc is an AWESOME product. Which you can download for FREE even in BETA. So why can’t the Intel version be Free. We don’t know what hardware it will work on, My main complaint being that only a handfull of pcmcia network cards work(there all old).
BTW, I have 4 Sparc Stations at my desk, some run SuSE 7.3 for sparc and they install easier and in my opinion run faster. But as far as a Hardcore server, I would run Solaris (Sparc).
Hardly fitting for a company who claims ” the network is the computer”. They used to have a Network Device Porting Kit that allowed you to modify Linux drivers to work on Solx86 but it seems they had to remove it as it infringed on Donald Becker’s work for Linux ethernet drivers.
Yes, I think Solaris for Sparc is an AWESOME product. Which you can download for FREE even in BETA. So why can’t the Intel version be Free.
One could argue that if you’re downloading the SPARC version, you’ve already subsidized the ‘free’ beta by buying Sun hardware in the first place.
Lets face it: Sun’s is completely allowed to charge $20 for it. No one who really wants Sol 9 can’t swing $20 for a server OS. Everyone will just have to not go out and have a few beers and dinner tonight and just make sandwiches. Unless you’re getting that Free Beer Stallman is always talking about.
I don’t recall exactly how much, but about the same, 15 or 20 bux
The $20 is not for profit, it is most likely to weed out people who are not really serious about testing Solaris 9 and just tie up bandwidth downloading something they aren’t going to use. I bet if you are a Sun customer, you can get these for free.
Could anyone post screenshots of solaris 9 x86?
Thanks
Neon neo
If you hesitate to pay $20 for a good piece of software,
then there is absolutely no possible way you work in the IT industry. And if you didn’t, why would you care about a high quality piece of software?
Some people PAY money for MS Betas. I remember there being a BOOK you could buy for the 95/98 Beta.
I have NO problem paying the $20, if I know what Hardware is supported by it. The web site points back to 8, if it supports the same hardware, I will just stick with Linux on my Laptop. I don’t want to pay for something that might or might not work for my needs. Without Sun haveing an up-to-date HCL out on there site, I don’t need to waste $20 until they do.
Thank you,
anybody download and install in vmware?
(warning : old joke follows) here’s two screenshots for you :
1) running as root :
#
2) and one running as a user :
$
With Solaris 8 you could run it in VMware, but you had to install it under windows. Getting X to work is a nightmare so I installed it under Linux and used XFree to ‘remotely’ display the CDE desktop.
I managed to get X Windows working pretty well with Solaris 8 for x86 running on top of Virtual PC. It’s been while, but if I remember correctly I was able to at least get 800x600x256, which isn’t too bad at all. It’s not officially supported, and you do have to play with the settings quite a bit, but it can work.
http://www.connectix.com/products/vpc5w.html