OpenSolaris: What Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up

[simtaalo]

firstly i apologise if this is a repost, but i couldnt find a thread about it.

ive just read this article
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8703

and wondered what everyone thought?

read this comment on the article

Finally someone understands what a real unix OS is supposed to be like and not a hacked up clone such as linux.

do you think there is any justification in this comment?

[thisllub]

I tried it for 2 weeks on my laptop.

#1 It is slow. Very slow.
Even with 2GB of ram everything takes about 4 times as long as linux.

#2 It is all or nothing.
Filesystem support is poor so forget dual booting.

#3 ZFS might be the 'uberfilesystem' of the month but it is also the most difficult to set up.

2 or 3 years and it might gain momentum but I can't see a compelling reason to choose it at the moment.

[cmay]

i have open-solaris. i also have bsd which is also a unix trademark,and Freedos but no windows. i have only *nix besides the free dos install i only have since its fun to use.for many reasons i always choose debian in the end . main reasons is hardware support. my open solaris is not half as mature as debian is at any points .at least as what my experience is. i use solaris for the fun of it and to use the internet. debian gnu linux is however not a unix brand like minix is not either. they are *nix like.all i can say is that for a operative system that just looks like and acts like a unix debian is the most advanced choice there is. i also have minix that is not even close to bsd or solaris .there is not even a danish keyboard layout in that yet. but in the end it does not matter what others write in their blogs and articles. if i cant have a printer driver on bsd or solaris i will turn to my old set of debian install dvd. i however like to use the other unices to learn them but i run debian and ubuntu as main operative systems since they are better and stabile at most points.

[vishzilla]

Ubuntu is way ahead at the moment. OpenSolaris was way too slow

[simtaalo]

why is particular do you think opensolaris is so slow?

@cmay - do you think opensolaris' biggest problem is hardware support?

i used solaris about 8 years ago when i was doing a comp sci degree course. i remember it being very functional and quick but i think that was more to do with the sun workstation it was running on.

[chalewa]

its difficult for me to take posts seriously when the screenshots of the operating system are from a digital camera.

[simtaalo]

i think that has more to do with the guy who wrote the article being at a trade show, not sure why it would make any of the issues less serious.

sure you can find better screenshots if you searched.

[Canis familiaris]

IMO OpenSolaris is very promising. I found it pretty fast to be honest. Personally I feel OpenSolaris has great capability to give Linux distros a tough run for their money.

[simtaalo]

what system were you running it on Anurag_panda?

[Canis familiaris]

what system were you running it on Anurag_panda?
AMD Athlon X2 4400+
ASUS M2A-VM
Corsair Value 2GB RAM@667Mhz (5-5-5-15)
(Integrated) ATi Radeon Xpress 1250
Western Digital Caviar SE16 2500AAKS
...

[unisol]

with better hardware support, and a filesystem that supports dual-booting, i think a lot of people would give it a try. i know i would.

[simtaalo]

hardware issues are my biggest concern, although it seems its needs a fairly decent machine to run it. one to definitely watch i think

[cmay]

@cmay - do you think opensolaris' biggest problem is hardware support?

i used solaris about 8 years ago when i was doing a comp sci degree course. i remember it being very functional and quick but i think that was more to do with the sun workstation it was running on.

to answer this question as for my setup then yes. i have nothing against solaris or open-editions of solaris. i run it as a ordinary desktop user ands to me it is a choice between having installed something on my new amd64 computer which brings me more understanding of the unix systems.

i have five older computers running free dos minix freebsd ubuntu. and recently got a new computer. so i installed open.solaris in that. to me its the problem with hardware support as none of my other computers can run solaris and find network as example. sound wont work either.i like open solaris but in the end if i need to install a printer on this computer i cant find a printer driver for it. i like all the *nix systems but it is debian or ubuntu i have to say is the most hardware supported systems i know of right now. i also think its more easy to find a community around linux than around bsd minix free dos and solaris.
which means something when i get stuck a bit. i know there is the official community at solaris homepage. but i did not sign up yet. maybe if i start use solaris more.

[perlluver]

I tried Open Solaris, needles to say I am still running Ubuntu. It killed my CD-Rom drive, when trying to install, and it was so bleeding slow, that I said forget about this. Three hours into the install time, I gave up. My computer maybe slower than some, but with a Gig of memory and a 64 Bit processor I can't justify that.

[Canis familiaris]

I tried Open Solaris, needles to say I am still running Ubuntu. It killed my CD-Rom drive, when trying to install, and it was so bleeding slow, that I said forget about this. Three hours into the install time, I gave up. My computer maybe slower than some, but with a Gig of memory and a 64 Bit processor I can't justify that.
Don't give it up completely though. Remember Linux was like that once. I am sure OpenSolaris will improve. :)

[jrusso2]

It seems to be that Solaris is trying to be more like Ubuntu when it grows up. OpenSolaris is trying to take the best parts of Linux and combine with the Solaris Kernel

[Canis familiaris]

It seems to be that Solaris is trying to be more like Ubuntu when it grows up. OpenSolaris is trying to take the best parts of Linux and combine with the Solaris Kernel
I agree. And I believe it has greater chance thab Linux of really serving desktop users if it is really doing that.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I agree. And I believe it has greater chance thab Linux of really serving desktop users if it is really doing that.

Perhaps, but it still needs to develop more.

[toupeiro]

To say Opensolaris is what Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up implies that OpenSolaris is a further evolved and developed OS than Ubuntu. That is simply not true. OpenSolaris holds a lot of promise. Solaris is very powerful. OpenSolaris takes solaris closer to the end user by making it easier to setup and use, but to say that its better than Ubuntu. Sorry, no, not yet.

[simtaalo]

I agree. And I believe it has greater chance thab Linux of really serving desktop users if it is really doing that.

+1

if it can become more streamlined and have better hardware support i think it could be very promising