SUN joins FSF and more...

[deanlinkous]

Sun Microsystems is the latest company to become a patron of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The FSF's corporate patron program allows companies to provide financial sponsorship for the FSF in return for free license consulting services. High-profile FSF patron affiliates include prominent technology companies like Google, Nokia, IBM, Cisco, and Intel. FSF involvement represents Sun's latest attempt to take a more active role in the open-source software community.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070228-8938.html

Along with this....
http://get.opensolaris.org/

Could they be gearing up to be the next OS loved by gplv3 free(dom) loving zealots. Man, I sure hope so!

[TekMate]

I ordered a OpenSolaris kit a few days ago, I can't wait to play with it one of my systems is listed in the HCL so I should be good.

[hqlinux]

I ordered a OpenSolaris kit a few days ago, I can't wait to play with it one of my systems is listed in the HCL so I should be good.

Review please, after you have had a chance to check it out.

Harvey

[Cloudy Wizzard]

I ordered a OpenSolaris kit a few days ago, I can't wait to play with it one of my systems is listed in the HCL so I should be good.

Hmm, is OpenSolaris the succesor of the Solaris platform ?

I thought the released Solaris as "free" before (or was that only free as gratis and nope as the FSF call's free ?).

[Bro.Tiag]

I ordered a OpenSolaris kit a few days ago, I can't wait to play with it one of my systems is listed in the HCL so I should be good.

How 'bout a link to the HCL? Also is there a LiveCD on offer?

Cheers

[TekMate]

There are two versions of Solaris to the best of my knowledge it is like the two versions of Freespire one has closed source components and the other is completely free you can create your own distro on it like building a Debian derivitive. A HCL is http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl/data/sol/ I will definately let you guys know how I find it to be.

[deanlinkous]

Basically opensolaris is simply a code base and a devel/community type project around that code base. Opensolaris is not a distro itself.

There are projects that are based on the code base such as
http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki

[TekMate]

Got my kit just now in the mail it comes with 3 DVDs in a full size case (like a movie comes in) one is a Sparc DVD the next is X64/X86 and the last is a developers tools DVD which I assume works with both. The cover insert is professionaly printed but nothing special overall very nice for a free shipment. I'll see if I can get time later to install it and let you know how it goes. Very fast shipment I ordered it at most 4 days ago including today.

[TekMate]

Installation took about 50 minutes not great compared to most other OSes. First boot it does some type of check and took almost 6 minutes on a 1.8ghz system second and third boots took about a minute each to a login prompt. Solaris comes with CDE and Gnome if you want to gain new appreciation of your current enviroment try CDE otherwise stick to Gnome. The version of Gnome is 2.6.1 which is ancient compared to what is out now but still very usable. For a browser it comes with Mozilla 1.7 yes I said Mozilla not FireFox but downloading FireFox 2.0.0.2 is easy. Installing it is another matter the packages don't automatically launch any type of package manager so if you are unaware of the fact that Solaris uses pkgadd to install new packages it will take you awhile to install. It has been about two years since I played with Solaris so I had to lookup the usage of pkgadd but having gone to school for Solaris admin (way back when dinos ruled the earth finding it was easy) The OS comes with StarOffice 7 which is capable but considering they make it I was suprised it didn't include 8 I mean Xandros Pro has 8 included and they have to pay to license it. The version of Flash installed is 7 and I haven't looked to see if there is an update or not as I don't use it that often. I don't know if there is a bug or if I have forgotten how to add a user but the account is created but not the home directories so I can't login as anyone other than root. I will look into this later when I have more time with the OS. The terminal defaults to sh not bash which will throw anyone not used to it for a loop do yourself a favor and just type bash it will make working easier. Overall I am disappointed it is way behind the competition and only time will tell if the X86 version is as stable as the Sparc version as that is the only way I can forgive the outdated versions of software.

[TekMate]

One thing I just noticed is the heat coming off the machine was alarming. I don't have temp sensors in this box so I just rebooted with a Kubuntu disk and already the heat is gone and the case is cool to the touch again. I will get a temp probe of some sort before I run Solaris on here again. I will try it on another box when I have more time.

[deanlinkous]

I assume you have the *real* solaris kit, not the opensolaris kit?

[hqlinux]

Thanks for the mini review...

after reading it... I think I'll pass on Solaris for now. Not enough hours in a day to play with something that ain't worth playing with...LOL

Harvey

[TekMate]

I assume you have the *real* solaris kit, not the opensolaris kit?

That is correct. I thought it was going to be the OpenSolaris kit but that is not what I got. I wonder if maybe I ordered the wrong thing. I am going to download one of the OpenSolaris distros I know there are one or two and compare them to see if they add anything.

[TekMate]

I'm downloading Belenix now we'll see how it works. Unfortunately since I gave up cable for DSL it will take almost 2 hours for it to finish so I probably won't be installing tonight.

[deanlinkous]

Last time I tried nexenta it had gnome 2.14

Solaris is a business workstation desktop and much like redhat (also as Kevin Carmony likes to point out) no business wants to upgrade every six months, or even every year. IIRC the last RedHat Linux was released in 2005? So I wouldn't expect Solaris to be anything-edge only stable and well tested.

hqlinux said he was still running XP - how old is that? :D

[hqlinux]

hqlinux said he was still running XP - how old is that? :D
LOL

Actually... some of them are only a "month or so" old....:D;)

Harvey

PS...

I forgot about Small Business Server 2003 which is quite new to me... so new in fact, I don't even have my new server yet...:D

[chakkaradeep]

I'm downloading Belenix now we'll see how it works. Unfortunately since I gave up cable for DSL it will take almost 2 hours for it to finish so I probably won't be installing tonight.

You can also order Opensolaris DVDs for free from here (http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/solaris-express/get.jsp)

Choose Free DVD Software in the combo box and Enjoy ! I have already ordered and they said it would take 2 to 4 weeks...waiting eagerly..

Meanwhile, i have downloaded NexentaOS (http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki) which looks the same as Ubunutu :)

[TekMate]

I thought that's what I ordered. Oh well. Nexenta looks nice I will have to try that one as well.