Solaris 8 & 9 Free for x86 Once Again

REBloomfield writes "The Register is reporting that after nearly two years, Solaris x86 8 & 9 is once again Free (as in beer) to download for x86 users." You can download it if you desire. Gives me college flashbacks.

Comments

Hardware Support

[rf0]

Worth reading the hardware compatibility list before installing

Rus

Re:Hardware Support

[Stonent1]

Yes, it works in VMware. It correctly detects the PCnet32 network card in vmware but not the video card. You have to do a text install (abort the x configuration) otherwise it will come up at 640x480 and the dialog boxes will be off the screen. Then use XFree86 to select the vmware video card. Other drivers are here:

Sound drivers for onboard audio and pci sound blasters

some usb devices

Network drivers Solaris should autodetect the video in Microsoft Virtual PC because it uses an S3 TRIO32/64 chipset, but it uses a Tulip network chip, so you'll need the nic drivers above.

Re:Somewhat related query

[metlin]

Depends on what is it you are using it for.

We have Solaris here at GTech GVU on both Sparc and IA. But we use Sparc here for a lot of graphics because while the SPARC and the Intel architecture have roughly the same performance on most integer operations, SPARC is better at floating point operations (don't remember the numbers - 30% I think).

I guess the overall performance would really depend on other things like your intent.

Re:Somewhat related query

[Telastyn]

There's not really any good metrics given the differences in platforms. IIRC though, Solaris runs much better on sparc, but x86 hardware is *MUCH* faster than any sparc you can get these days, and is still cheaper.

That said, sun hardware is generally rock solid, and getting solaris x86 working is a PITA.

re: performance between solaris x86 and other free alternatives:

The performance gains [which IIRC there aren't any for most circumstances] aren't worth the compatability losses. For most people, solaris x86 is just a good way to learn the differences between BSD/linux and Solaris for when you get to a job with larger SPARC machines.

requirements

[musikit]

You must have:
Free disk space: 4.0 GBytes to Install Solaris 9 OS; 5.0 GBytes to Install Java Enterprise System Software
Recordable CD-ROM drive: To create CDs using the downloaded zipped files
Recordable CDs: Blank 750 recordable or rewriteable CDs, one needed for each CD image downloaded
CD labels: Required under license agreement
CD writing application: Use cdrecord for Solaris or Easy CD Creator for Windows is recommended
Download Manager: Sun Download Manager (Free version) runs on most platforms (see System Requirements for details)
Unzip application: WinZip recommended for Microsoft Windows (or use Sun Download Manager's automatic unzip feature)

you also need to "register" on sun's website. so it's as free as the NY times articles online. too bad there isn't a google cache of solaris 9

Re:Now I have a reason to switch...

[larien]

Yes and they would be right to; Sun doesn't own the full rights to all the Solaris code (cat /usr/bin/clear for one example) and doesn't have the legal right to release it under the GPL.

It's free for Sparc now too

[martinde]

I've run across several free Sparcs, including an Ultra 2 that a friend's company was throwing away. It looks as though I can download Solaris for it for free now too! I thought about running Linux on it, but I'm not sure what the point would be since it would be slower than the x86s I've got around.

Re:Uhhh... So Where's SCO?

[iggymanz]

Sun is the "mystery licencee" who recently gave SCO a huge pile of cash last July. SCO is therefore leaving Sun alone.