Forgetting that his mama always told him not to look into the sun, PCWorld’s Free Software guru takes a look at Sun’s edition of Linux.
Sun’s Take on Linux
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
If this guy should be giving reviews of Linux operating systems, then I should be doing briefings for neuro-surgeons.
What a totally brainless way to review any Linux distribution. He doesn’t even know that JDS is based on the SuSE build that achieved Common Criteria EAL 3.
He didn’t have a second machine so he tried to install it on his laptop. Whew!
Forgetting that his mama always told him not to look into the eyes of the sun…
but mama, that’s where the fun is
Seriously though, why should it matter if he installed it on his laptop. If it’s supported hardware, that’s all that should matter.
Mandrake 10 has done it for me. I spend more time USING that version of linux than any I’ve come across yet. I can’t speak for Sun’s version of Linux but I’m kind ok leery about going with a company that has had a lukewarm relationship with Linux to begin with. The only thing they’ve succeeded using linux for is the Cobal line of linux servers. (I think they changed the name to Sun One servers or some such thing, they WERE cobalt when I did tech support for them.)
~me
@Tom Adelstein
I believe the review is good because it shows things from an average user’s perspective. And the author shows why Sun hasn’t put much time and thought into JDS, such as not even bothering to correct Yast so that it doesn’t claim to be installing Suse. JDS, as it stands, is a waste of time. Suse or Mandrake offer a much better desktop.
@darkstar127:
I concur. Mandrake is nice and easy to install and has the best multimedia experience out of the three major distributions. (urpmi libdvdcss will get you the only thing missing) and you are up and watching DVDs, burning CDs, listening to MP3s. I really like Juk and kgpg makes managing gnupg keys a child’s play.
Mandrake is overall extremely stable and fast, which is a significant feat considering that this is a .0 release. I think Mandrake has matured a great deal as both an OS and as a company.
It seems to be the new favourite one’s game to criticize the Linux desktop without using it really, just after installing it.
What those titles actually mean :
-The Sun Also Freezes
-Where the Sun Don’t Shine
-Old Business, New Business
I’ve never given Sun JDS a try, but I am sure, that the author would have written the same thing about other ditros.
But this review (which indeed is braindead) seems to me to cover Linux distros in general. Plenty of problems that is…
Maybe not the best article, but the author makes some good points. The name really is stupid, JDS is just a weak rip-off of SuSe, it has nothing to do with java. And the installation and general setup does seem to be poorly designed.
As another poster has pointed out: sunw’s relationship with linux has been dubious at best.
Of the distros out there, why go with JDS? How is JDS supperior?
This “review” was a farce. Let’s just pick out the misrepresentations or lack of understanding. He complains about the Java name and links to Netscape’s JavaScript as an example of Sun tacking the Java name on everything. Then he points to Sun’s Linux page stating it doesn’t even mention JDS. He fails to notice that the page is for server versions, and there is a link to JDS under “Related pages”. As others have mentioned, he is oblivious to the fact that JDS is a layered product over top of SuSE’s desktop distribution.
I’ll admit that I haven’t installed JDS myself, but you have to wonder about some of the issues he talked about when he admits that he didn’t complete the installation. When he had problems with the third disk, he just quit and figured he’d installed enough. Maybe when it completed itself everything installed properly, maybe not. In a real enterprise, we’d test things like that.
Speaking of, in a real enterprise, we wouldn’t have people installing OSes from CDs. We’d have a fully tested, and fully integrated distribution that we’d roll out across the network or in our staging center. We’d catch the kinds of things that he’s talking about. Remember, we’re talking about an enterprise desktop, not a distribution for “Grandma” to install.
How is JDS superior?
Maybe in the way of the tools that “I did not test”.
Maybe in the integration of the JVM, which many distributiosn won’t include for religious reasons, because it isn’t “free enough”.
Maybe in the commercial support that Sun offers for Enterprise users.
Check out some real comparisons, such as http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1613697,00.asp“>Comparing
and the related articles.