A Weekend Look At OpenSolaris 2009.06

[Craig73]

I did try OpenSolaris. I just experienced whatever you experience with every stock Linux distribution...therefore I see no point to it...

If your needs were clear, then your questions would be more directed, and the best OS would be easy to identify. If you are simply looking for an open desktop to surf the web then choose a Linux distribution, they tend to advance more quickly and support more hardware than OpenSolaris or BSD.

That being said, if you were running a large transactional or online system that is business critical, a prime example of where OpenSolaris stands strong is in the ability to debug problems.

I read a case study where DTrace allowed a user to investigate a performance issue in their app by generating a trace from the kernel all the way up to and including the users application (something I understand you can not easily do in Linux), and within a couple of hours (hours! not days) were able to identify the core OS issue, generate a patch, and have it applied onto the system; it improved the performance of the app something like 20-40%. Do the cost/benefit analysis on that one [I've lost weeks of man hours debugging production problems on MS hosted solutions...the tools really make the difference]

I don't claim to remember the numbers exactly, and it was a single case, and largely marketing spiel, but that doesn't matter; DTrace has been praised strongly, and is being ported to BSD and MacOSX, Linux doesn't have it although they are trying to produce a clone of the technology.

So booting and playing with an OS and seeing the same old desktop simply shows that the flexibility of open source has allowed the desktop to easily ported and added to the system. This is a great feat if you have ever run older unix systems with their lack of quality desktop or business apps. But it doesn't tell you anything about the system otherwise, such as what an awesome debugging platform it is.

Really...what results could you expect from demand that the platform be better summarized for you after stating it's pointless. You didn't even state your needs, and there wasn't even curiosity, just "this sucks". Would a chef explain the interesting things on a menu if you yell out when entering a restaurant is "what stinks?"

[edit: btw... the benefits of solaris and it's technologies have been explained in many places, and compared to Linux in others. It is not unreasonable for someone to ask you to do some research, so that their time isn't wasted answering the same questions over and over. If you respect their time, they will likely gladly give you detailed answers on things you need "clarified"]

[frische]

Well, my main reason are the development tools. I also never experienced a serious crash.

Sure, if all you want is a gnome desktop + openoffice you can pretty much choose any linux or bsd.

[susikala]

You can't be bothered to use Google, I can't be bothered trying to convince someone who obviously wouldn't even want to try OpenSolaris.

It's kind of odd that a large number of users of an OS that is only used by around 1% of users in the world are screaming to kill off a different operating system that is used by even fewer people. But while you're at it, why don't you wish for all the products that you don't use to die-off ? Who needs any other cereal brands when you've got your favourite.

I did try OpenSolaris. I just experienced whatever you experience with every stock Linux distribution, without, say, the glamour of Fedora or the user-friendliness of Ubuntu or Debian's robustness or Gentoo's customiseability. Therefore I see no point to it, really. It's so vague in my mind I can't even categorise it internally (as in, answer the question 'what does it exist for?'). Can you answer that?

I don't think your statement holds truth. I personally use whatever I want to use, whether it be Linux, *BSD or Windows if it suits my needs. The only thing I shun completely is Apple, really. And even if I only used Linux or even one of the smaller BSDs, would I be less justified in criticising OpenSolaris for its abundant pointlessness?

[etacarinae]

Sorry, I can't be bothered to hold up a discussion like that. You're just listing up all kinds of names or abbreviations which are virtually High Chinese to me.

You can't be bothered to use Google, I can't be bothered trying to convince someone who obviously wouldn't even want to try OpenSolaris.

It's kind of odd that a large number of users of an OS that is only used by around 1% of users in the world are screaming to kill off a different operating system that is used by even fewer people. But while you're at it, why don't you wish for all the products that you don't use to die-off ? Who needs any other cereal brands when you've got your favourite.

[susikala]

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showp...1&postcount=23

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=28 (lacking points 1 & 3 have been fixed now)

Sorry, I can't be bothered to hold up a discussion like that. You're just listing up all kinds of names or abbreviations which are virtually High Chinese to me. You don't explain _why_ someone should use those, or if any of those points don't have equivalent or better BSD/linux replacements which would make OpenSolaris unique.

If you want to extend your userbase, you have to do a better job at convincing people they should use it, not expect them to go to great lengths to find out what the one or other feature means. That is something too many people in the open source world have failed to realise (I mean, you can say a lot of things about Ubuntu, but they're not condescending).

[frische]

i thing Juergen Keil also contributed a fix for lp 4) in one of the recent builds.
lp 5) still holds.

9. Simultaneous support for 32 & 64 bit apps.
This is something I find particular lacking with Linux distributions.
Also on this matter,opensolaris makes imho more sane choices when go to 64bit, that is, when there is a need or advantage from it ( 64bit firefox anyone? )

[etacarinae]

Or do you have any good reason to use OpenSolaris?

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showpost.php?p=62031&postcount=23

http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showp...3&postcount=28 (lacking points 1 & 3 have been fixed now)

Or just go to opensolaris.com or opensolaris.org.

[kraftman]

@Susikala

I personally prefer *Solaris over BSD* (and news about Solaris) and forking is sometimes very good thing. There's a thread at lkml where some kernel devs even think about forking GCC or writing their own compiler. And about ego - OpenBSD... Sorry I have even better example - HURD.

[susikala]

And could you enlighten us all what does forking have to do with OpenSolaris, which can't use any Linux kernel stuff anyway as the licenses are not compatible. Moreover, the kernels are way too different for such a port to make sense anyway.

Sorry, when I boot OpenSolaris, I see nothing but a stock Linux distro with GNOME. Unlike the BSDs which all have _some_ clear objective, Solaris/OpenSolaris is just a Linux copycat spawned out of Sun's ego. I really hope Oracle lets it die its due death if / when they buy Sun.

Or do you have any good reason to use OpenSolaris?

What I really don't get, this totally unimportant news gets reported here, as if anyone cared, while the latest and (great) releases of the four BSDs don't get any referral. Odd.

[etacarinae]

That's a pain in the ass to get it to work. And I don't even know if it supports my card. It's not listed and the newer one is stated as "alpha test version". I can't accept this. It's open solaris duty to do something about considering that my card perfectly works on Windows and Linux without any hassles.

A pain in the ass to get it to work ?

Download, copy to a flashdrive, run
tar xvzf nfo-2.6.3.tar.gz && cd nfo-2.6.3 && pfexec make install64 && pfexec ./addrv.sh

If your system is 64 bit... (or use install32 if it's 32 bit...), if that's hard, then I'd say that Linux is not for you either...

As for alpha, if it hasn't been updated this means it has been working perfectly fine and there is simply no need to update the driver.