Sun Works to Converge Linux and Solaris

Jucius Maximus writes "A new change has appeared in Sun's strategy as reported by CNET. Instead of dismissing Linux as inferior, it is now trying to integrate elements of Linux into Solaris for easier porting of applications. This looks like a step in the right direction for Linux acceptance in the professional server market."

Comments

Re:GPL

[the red pen]

Sun is making sure that Linux API's are available on Solaris. It is certainly possible to do this without having to GPL all or any of the code base.

They are doing this so that Linux applications will port trivially to Solaris. This isn't an admission that Linux is as good as Solaris, but just that it's more popular for developers.

I think the reason's are different

[aralin]

I'm software engineer, I have both solaris and linux workstations on my desk and to be honest, I prefer to work on my linux and run my database and hard computations on my Ultra-1. Why? Well, Solaris sucks compared to Linux in the ease of use and ability to script your work easy, man pages, utilities, ... and many more aspects. It might be superior OS in matter of stability or effectiveness to use the SPARC platform, but ...

So they did the logical step. Looked in what is Linux better and try to incorporate these things in Solaris. I say, way to go. But its not to increase Linux's acceptance, really :)

Sun not trying to help Linux

[Gerdts]

This looks like a step in the right direction for Linux acceptance in the professional server market.

This is not what Sun is intending to do. They realize that there are a lot more people out there that are writing code for Linux and making it a desirable OS to use than there are doing the same for Solaris. By making it easier to port from Linux to Solaris, Sun is trying to make it easier for developers to keep Solaris as a top tier platform.

For instance, if you have installed OpenSSH on Solaris, you will have been forced to look into the various methods for getting /dev/urandom or a suitable replacement. After I brought this issue up and reminded Sun that they were trying to get to a Linux-compatible API, they backported their Solaris 9 /dev/urandom to Solaris 8 with patch 112438-01. Imagine my shock that Sun actually implemented one of my RFE's.

Re:Reverse Strategy

[Andrewkov]

But it's in Sun's best interest to pave a smooth superhighway upgrade path from Linux to Solaris for users that grow beyond their x86 hardware

Well said, I think this is the reasoning behind the move. Let "newbies" migrate their servers from Windows to Linux (hey, it's cheap), then once they outgrow their x86 box it will be easy to move to Sun hardware without porting their business application or whatever it is their running. Brilliant idea! I guess Sun realises it is better to have people using Linux than Windows, since they are more likely to move to Sun from Linux than they are from Windows. Linux makes a good intermediate step.

Re:Why maintain all that SysV cruft?

[irix]

if Sun were to replace all possible SysV components in Solaris with their GNU equivalents

It would cause chaos. Come on, they just can't ship Solaris 9 and replace the Sun tar with the GNU tar. I'll give you that GNU tar is way better than the one Sun ships (the GNU tar comes first in my $PATH), but people have written software (Solaris package install scripts, for example) expecting the Sun tar to be there and take a certain set of arguments. Maybe tar is a bad example, but you get the idea.

Sun is doing the smart thing by gradually switching things over. They have some GNU stuff available in the core install, and some GNU stuff available on a second CD. I now can write software for Solaris assuming Perl is installed, for example.

This will improve slowly, over time.

Re:Reverse Strategy

[4of12]

How would adding cool Solaris features to Linux help Sun:

1. migrate more users from Linux to Solaris? Why buy the cow when the milk is free?
2. sell more Sparc servers? The Solaris features added to Linux would be GPL and quickly ported to x86 Linux, undercutting Sparc server sales.

Good questions, and I'm not sure the answers are as comforting as you would like. But here goes.

It wouldn't actively cause migration from Linux to Solaris, but when the time comes to upgrade from a low cost Linux solution to something bigger and better, will it be Sun, HPaq, IBM, SGI? If Solaris is most compatible, then that choice will be Sun. Of course users will drink free milk as long as they can, but someday they'll need more milk than the free cows can give. The key is to insure that low end cheap server market goes into the UNIX world on a upgrade path that leads to you rather than your competitors.

Low end SPARC hardware sales are a losing proposition at this point in time. Sun has reasonably good high end offerings, but in the low end they're offering Solaris/SPARC vs either Wintel or Lintel. Lintel is the ultimate lowest cost option and, while it eats the lunch of low- end SPARC, that lunch was going to be eaten anyway by either Wintel or Lintel. At least the Linux box keeps users in the UNIX world where Sun has a lot of software experience to offer. Logically, you want the cost of rewriting business application logic transitioning from Linux to Solaris to be small. Also, 64-way Solaris/SPARC machines give those UNIX users at the low end a scalable upgrade path that is missing from the Wintel world.

Granted, it's harder to make money where much of what was previously offered is becoming commoditized, but it's an irresistable force that the market is demanding.

Ride that wave and anticipate where it's going instead of trying to stop it.