Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sun Works to Converge Linux and Solaris

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the linaris-solarnux dept.

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."

4 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Re:GPL by the+red+pen · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

  2. I think the reason's are different by aralin · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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 :)

    --
    If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
  3. Sun not trying to help Linux by Gerdts · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

  4. Re:Reverse Strategy by Andrewkov · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.