Will Open Source Solaris Kill Linux?

Scott_Blayney writes "This guy contends that now that Sun is releasing Solaris 10 under an open source license, Linux will begin to wane in popularity. To quote, "Linux will probably not grow much beyond its current market share of about 10 % leaving Red Hat and especially Novell with a big problem." "

Comments

Uh...

[danielrm26]

"Will Open Source Solaris Kill Linux?"

No.

Re:Uh...

[saintp]

Blow-by-blow:

The Solaris software is of proven quality and at least equal or better then Linux and the open source model will assure that it stays up there.

I'll grant everything before the "and." We don't know what Sun's OSS model will look like. It certainly won't be the GPL, and I'll be amazingly surprised if it's even as liberal as the BSD licence. People aren't fond of giving away their code so that a corporation can make money off of it, so if Sun's model is anything like Microsoft's Shared Source initiative, it will stifle development by the community, not encourage it.

By making it work with competing hardware platforms, there is no reason anymore to switch software to facilitate lower hardware costs.

Granted. Solaris on x86 was a very wise move. However, one big reason to run Solaris is the tight integration with hardware, which can't be said about Solaris on x86. Also, as much as Schwartz talks about running Solaris on Dell (HP, whatever) commodity boxes, it has a very short hardware compatibility list -- much shorter than that of Linux.

Sun with Solaris has already a large installed base and by becoming free and open source there is no reason for existing Solaris users to switch to Linux. Circular. He's arguing why people should stay with Solaris; "there's no reason to switch" is not a reason at all, but a question-begging.

Sun has a proven reputation in terms of quality of support. This should be at least as good or better then that of the Linux supporters. The help ticket I have currently open with Solaris will turn five months old on Wednesday. It was three weeks before any action was taken on it. It also had a four-hour response time. The issue has still not been resolved. Sun's support is far from stellar, despite what they'd have you believe. In fact, their support (or lack thereof) has been the trump card in my quest to get my boss to accept Linux.

Because Sun by default is the only designated party managing the open source software, there will be no risk of a version bonanza with multiple incompatible versions.

This may be nice to the PHB, but the ability to fork is something developers like. Plus, as was mentioned on /. just today, Linus is the final arbiter of the Linux kernel and, as long as he keeps doing a good job, will remain so. Multiple vendors (as opposed to multiple versions) ensures healthy competition, which is why Linux has gone from a nifty experiment and useful OS for unimportant things like web servers to OS of choice for everything from Wall Street to government desktops in just a few years.

I see no danger to Linux. And frankly, Solaris was already dirt cheap, but the support still costs big bucks, which means that Solaris still costs about as much as RHEL. Or, if you don't want support, it costs just as much as RHEL without support. That's the only front they gained on, and I don't see it as very critical.

Re:Uh...

[niiler]

Thank you. I've used Solaris for a number of years. And while it's not bad, these days, Linux is honestly a much more robust system in terms of software and hardware support. Additionally, (I have no figures to support this), but considering the previous cost of Solaris, I'd be willing to bet that there are many more Linux users. This doesn't necessarily make it better. I just interpret this as yet another premature prediction of Linux's demise.

Let me add, it's not hard to secure Linux especially since the Bastille scripts work with more and more distros and many distros I've encountered already have some hardening done (in addition to firewalls, etc...) right out of the box.

Much of the original poster's citation of benefits seem to be largely from his inexperience with Linux and acceptance of the usual corporate FUD.

Re:Uh...

[Zemran]

The contention that Solaris can kill Linux comes from the mono-os culture and that is what is wrong with the current M$ dominated situation. The contenion seems to be 'how can Linux achieve market dominance if there is another good player in town?'. It is not the Windows OS that is the problem (although I do not like it), it is the fact that it has such a dominant market share that causes problems. If Linux could get 20% of the market, Solaris 20%, Apple 20%, M$ 20% and the variety of others taking the other 20% we would have a good, healthy market. Try writing a virus that works in that market. I think if Linux had 90% of the market we would be back at square one. I welcome more choice and think that more choice and competition will lead to more innovation and even more choice in the future. The reason I hate M$ is because they think they know better than me what I want to do, I use Linux because it lets me do what I want. Some people want M$ to make those decisions for them and that is their choice. It is not wrong for someone to make a different choice, it is wrong to try and remove those choices (as I believe M$ tries to do). Solaris will give another choice which will suit a lot of people. I do not think this is as much of a threat to Linux but more of a threat to M$.

Erm...

[Punboy]

Doesn't Linux support a vastly large collection of hardware than Solaris? Also, Linux isn't just popular because of its open-source nature, but also the philosophy behind its design and development, as well as the number of professionals behind it. I don't see the NSA donating to Solaris, now do I see most of europe backing Linux.

I haven't RTFA yet so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Re:I don't buy this at all.

[Ian.Waring]

Nor me. If Solaris really did go open source the way most people understand it, the useful bits of code would find it's way into all the various Linux distributions in pretty short order.

Open Source Solaris = Linux with a direction

[stratjakt]

Solaris couldn't kick linux out of every possible niche (embedded wagoo 3sx-12 cpus or whatnot), it could cream it on the desktop.

Sun will throw all its muscle behind it's Java Desktop to deliver a polished, cohisive system. Linux will continue to be pulled in 100 directions at once.

Distros need to stop offering Gnome, KDE, fluxbox, and 9000 other window managers, and pick a path and stick to it.

There really isn't that much of a market for people who like to dick around with 10000 different ways to close a window, each with it's own myriad of quirks and bugs. They like to plug it in, turn it on, and have it work pretty much the same way as the one in the next cubicle, or the next building.

Linux' strength (versatility) is it's achilles heel when it comes to the desktop market.

Too Late

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

If Solaris had done this TEN YEARS AGO, then maybe. As things stand today, no. It comes down to a matter of trust. Do most Linux users trust Solaris enough to let go of Linux? No.

Take a choice between A and B. A is commonly considered a better product than B. Most will choose A. But B offers something that A has never dreamed of. In fact, A hates the idea of offering what B offers. B gains a lot of support. Time ticks by, and after seeing how much B has benefitted A changes it's mind and offers something similar to what B offers - but only because it has to.

Do all those people who would have originally chosen A, but chose B go back to A? NO. Because B is of a similar mindset to the choosers. B WANTS to offer things to the chooser. A offers because it has to remain competitive. That is HUGE. And that is why Solaris will not kill Linux.


P.S. A is not necessarily better than B.

Re:It all depends on the size of the group support

[Sesostris III]

Its worse than that. IBM may support Linux, but Linus is not IBM. This allows Intel, HP, Novell and others to also support Linux.

Solaris, even if Open Source, is still Sun. Would Intel, HP and Novell, let alone IBM, be willing to support a platform that is still linked heavily with Sun, rather than one that is truly "free"?

I doubt it.