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View Full Version : Solaris 10 has some pretty interesting ideas



BWF89
November 20th, 2004, 03:29 AM
I've been hearing about Sun Microsystems Solaris 10 for a few weeks on Linux news websites but this article really cleared things up for me. Before reading this I thought Solaris 10 was just another open source wannabe but it may verywell give Linux some competition and pave the way for future operating systems. I thought the paragraph about DTrace was a pretty neat concept. Another interesting note about Solaris 10, Sun Microsystems is going to give SL10 to the public once it reaches a certain popularity, so it will truely become an operating system for the people by the people...

Opinions?
http://wwws.sun.com/software/solaris/images/solaris_medium.jpg
To give credit to the people who took the time to write this article heres a link to the page... (http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159380)

Taking a leaf from Linux's book, Sun Microsystems will later today make its newly developed Solaris 10 operating system available for free, charging customers only for support.

The latest version of Solaris is scheduled to be unveiled at an event in San José, California as part of the firm's quarterly roundup of product announcements.

Solaris 10 marks a major effort by Sun to regain some of the ground it lost over the past years to Linux, according to Mark McLain, vice president for software marketing at Sun.

"The movement away from Unix and Solaris has been dramatic. We come out now and say: 'We have an alternative for [Linux].'"

Some of the operating system's key features were designed specifically to appeal to users switching from Linux to Solaris.

Among them is an application codenamed Project Janus that allows users to create a virtual container inside Solaris in which they can run Linux applications. This enables them to use Linux applications that are not supported for Solaris.

DTrace is another feature which McLain claims is getting a lot of positive feedback from users. By measuring the performance of individual applications, DTrace lets the IT department pinpoint bottlenecks in the system and improve overall performance.

McLain likened the diagnostic tool to a physical exam where a physician looks for clogged arteries to improve overall blood flow.

Sun's operating system offering will be most appealing to enterprises that in the past abandoned the Solaris operating system because they switched to cheaper servers which Solaris did not support, according to Gary Hein, vice president and service director for application platform strategies with analyst firm The Burton Group.

"[Solaris 10] should change a lot of people's considerations of running Linux. It's very compelling," he said.

The big question remains as to whether Sun can make enough money from the software by just charging for support, Hein noted, pointing to the meagre revenues of Linux providers like Red Hat and SuSE. "There is money in there, but not hundreds of millions," he warned.

Since Sun is travelling down the road of the Linux business model, some users might be disappointed that the company will not today announce the release of the Solaris source code.

It has previously promised to transfer the code to the public domain, but has not yet disclosed when such a move will be made.

McLain promised that Solaris will be open sourced "around year's end".

http://wwws.sun.com/im/logo_sun.gifIf that article didn't explain what Solaris 10 is mabye this slightly humorous cartoon will... (http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/insidejack2/)
If you liked Inside Jack Episode 2 this one is pretty funny too... (http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/features/insidejack1/)

BWF89
November 22nd, 2004, 03:19 AM
Has anyone here tried Solaris? If so I'd like to hear what you thought about it...

thebeast
November 22nd, 2004, 04:00 AM
What do they do for a desktop environment? Is it some Java thing created entirely by Sun? Is it Project Looking Glass? Gnome??

Seti
November 22nd, 2004, 06:31 AM
According to the Sun people one has a choice on Solaris10 of either KDE or Gnome.

Burgundavia
November 22nd, 2004, 07:12 AM
I think that S10 is massively overblown. I am very sceptical about the "open source" licence that they are going to release it under. Just my 2 bits.


Corey

BWF89
November 24th, 2004, 01:31 AM
At first I was like
"WOW! Solaris 10 looks pretty cool. I hope they do well"...

Then after thinking I was like
"OH $*** Solaris 10 means that as well as competeing with Windows, Apple, and UNIX we have Solaris 10 on our hands. Why couldn't they have kept helping the Linux community rather than betreying us?"...

poptones
November 24th, 2004, 01:57 AM
This isn't new, Solaris has always been there and linux has always had to "compete" with it.

If sun is serious about an open source license (which I doubt) then it won't matter - any good stuff in Solaris will instantly be migrated to linux, and Sun will be able to move and play in the neighborhood like any good citizen.

TravisNewman
November 24th, 2004, 04:54 AM
Yeah, Solaris has been around for years. It's DEFINITELY not a wannabe. From what I can tell from using version 8 in college, it's a very stable, and pretty useable UNIX system. It's the UNIX platform that my college used (and still uses I think) for all the servers on campus, as well as the development platform in the CPSC labs. It's pretty sweet, I've been wanting to try version 10 out for a long time now, I just haven't. I doubt that it will gain the following of Linux anytime soon though.

Buffalo Soldier
January 30th, 2005, 04:09 AM
Sun Solaris Patent Release Questioned (http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3465901)


...The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) is criticizing Sun and its CEO Scott McNealy for potentially misleading developers into thinking Sun's latest open source contribution is free of any legal land mines...

...As part of the code launch event, McNealy boasted he is granting the open source software community access to more than 1,600 of Sun's patents, and that the company would offer full indemnification against any legal challenges to the code.

But nowhere in the CDDL language does it mention anything about the number of patents being released. And Ravicher claims that Sun's language about how it can and cannot go after parties for patent infringement is vague...