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Sun Reconsidering Solaris 9 for x86

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the try-debian-anyway dept.

jeffphil writes "This article reports that Sun is meeting with a group of Solaris x86 users called the 'Secret Six.' The group was created to convince Sun to re-examine its previous decision to cancel Solaris on the x86 platform."

3 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Who cares at this point? by u01000101 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So again, I reiterate, who cares?

    If you bothered to read the article, you surely would've found this:
    One analyst said Solaris on Intel is of particular help for users looking to create large-scale symmetric multiprocessing systems on low-cost hardware.

    I can subscribe to that; linux is not (yet) a match for Solaris/i386 on SMP.

    The sad part is that a lot of companies stopped producing "third-party" software for Solaris/i386 when Sun annouced it's demise; even if they change their minds now, the chances are slim for popular support for the platform.

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  2. Re:Yay for Solaris by jedidiah · · Score: 5, Interesting

    PHB's with an irrational fear of Free Software can use it to deploy Unix on cheap commodity hardware. I worked for such a PHB once. Like any company, they were somewhat stingy. They were a Solaris shop interested in deploying a number of servers on "cheap x86 hardware".

    Originally, they were going to reluctantly deploy onto Linux because cost. However, when the gratis version of Solaris x86 was announced they switched so fast you could have gotten whiplash.

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  3. What happens if Sun GPLs the kernel? by emil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would this make Linux irrelevant instantaneously?

    If we could wrap a scalable, sound, SMP-capable GPL kernel around Debian or Red Hat, would we think twice?

    Or what if Sun were to release and maintain free Solaris for Itanium as well as x86? Would that be the kiss of death for HP-UX and AIX 5L? Why do they hesitate?

    Granted, the Solaris kernel has weaknesses. UFS has to go. I hate /etc/system, I'd much rather tune on the fly with 2.4. patchchk is what up2date was several years ago. Sun's continued reliance on CDE/ksh/zip to get everything done really makes me ill. Solaris needs to be the UNIX of the 21st century.

    What is the possibility of Sun convincing Apple to integrate large portions of Solaris into Mac OS X? Would they be willing to give it away to Apple? Why haven't they done so to build up market share?

    I am a Sun stockholder. I would like to see Sun publicly considering these actions. I want to see some bombast from Steve and Bill. If Sun, Apple, and possibly AOL collaberate on an x86-os, they will kill Microsoft.

    Sun needs to wake up to the potential of its own power. As it stands, they are difficult to distinguish from roadkill.