Solaris 10 Released

AusG4 writes "Sun Microsystems has released Solaris 10 for both SPARC and Intel/Opteron. Downloading it is the usual 'register and get your free license' meandering; the Intel/Opteron version is 4 CDs and an optional language and companion disc (a bunch of pre-compiled GNU software in pkgadd format, I'm assuming, same as Solaris 8 and 9)."

Comments

The hole in our Apple theories

[Dancin_Santa]

Everyone around here keeps saying that Apple should get out of the PPC business and get into licensing OSX for the Intel x86 procs. They argue that selling the software is more lucrative than selling the hardware.

I think that Sun is providing us with a very good example of the opposite being true. Even though they literally give their product away for free, they still make money on their hardware. Apple would be fools to give up the high-margin hardware market and try to compete toe to toe with Microsoft Windows.

Re:The hole in our Apple theories

[Anonymous Coward]

I disagree, I work at Apple. Here's the deal... even though we do sell to the business market our main focus is the home user. Yes, we make servers and Xsan, BUT our main market is home user and it always has been. Sun's market is purely business class IT infrastructure, always has been. So comparing the two is irrational. Now that's not to say that we should stop using power PC chips and making hardware; our hardware is beautiful. I think that if we released OS X on a intel /intel clone platform that our operating system being a user friendly unix, that is spyware free, adware free, virtually bug free, and virtually virus free would knock Microsoft's market share out of the water. The cool thing about OS X is it's feature rich enough that any coder, admin, or hacker can use it (BASH shell HELLO!) but easy enough that a 70 plus grandmother can use it. Just like our slogan says, "It just works". Now as you probably know OS X was based on NeXT's platform and it ran on Intel 486 (in addition to other processors) So it's not like "we" haven't done it before. What I think is keeping "us" out of the market is the little matter of 150 million Microsoft dollars that saved us back in '97. I think one of the terms of that hidden agreement was a non-compete clauses. I think we are bound to stay of Intel clone architecture. I mean why else? There's money in software; just ask Bill Gates.

Re:The hole in our Apple theories

[Jugalator]

" virtually bug free,"

Hmm, but one would need to brace oneself for new bugs due to the much more varied PC hardware => having to rely on third party developers => having to accept they might break your stable OS. That's basically the major cause of instability for Windows XP that I can see today. Fortunately, there are WHQL certified drivers so it became less of an issue when those were introduced. Just saying that with Apple hardware, you're staying away from a heck of a lot of problems in the formula of giving drivers direct hardware acccess for decent perfomance while keeping the whole thing stable.

Re:The hole in our Apple theories

[viperblades]

Apple would lose their most valuable possession.
Mindshare.
They want people to think of well built quality systems, with emphasis on quality. This is the reason Rolls Royce doesn't make cars to compete with civics. If apple where to make OS X for x86 they'd lose the image they to try to project of having systems that just work (due to quality on lots of x86 hardware) . Apple may be a small fish, but it lives in a small pond where it IS the big fish. They keep that market and they'll live on just fine (and be happy with their products :) ) .

Don't mislead people

[Anonymous Coward]

Solaris is no longer available for "SPARC" systems, only UltraSPARC systems. It no longer supports sun4m or sun4d.

Re:UNIX vs. LINUX?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Don't.

And if you really, seriously want to do it, for the love of God check the hardware compatibility list and save the rest of us a million questions about why Solaris won't work on your PC. Simple - if the hardware's not on the list, Solaris won't work with it! Really! Sun's not lying in their document.

Re:UNIX vs. LINUX?

[Anonymous Coward]

Portage on Solaris? NetBSD pkgsrc already provides 5,300 packages ready to build on Solaris.

-Install Solaris
-Install gcc
-Install pkgsrc
-'make install' your desired package
-Enjoy

Multiple OS support?

[RatRagout]

Can I install this version without killing my other operating systems?

Re:Multiple OS support?

[LeninZhiv]

Yes, but (unless things have changed since beta69; my download is still in progress), it's not as idiot-proof as installing Solaris 9 was. (Although the hardware support is much better, so the chances of this working on your machine are way higher than with Solaris 9).

It's also surprisingly easy to kill your other operating systems when you install though, so do your homework. (Google "dual-boot" "Solaris 10" etc. and keep reading till you're sure you've filled in all the gaps, and back up just in case). Also of course have a copy of Knoppix and your bootloader configuration around.

Solaris Zones vs User Mode Linux

[KidSock]

Currently I'm using a UML provider for my website / email / etc. I will be very interesting to see if Solaris 10 Zones perform better. If they do ISPs might provide more power per $.

Re:Solaris Zones vs User Mode Linux

[darkcompanion]

Solaris 10 zones have much better performance than UML, more comparable to Xen or FreeBSD jails. However, Xen runs only on IA32, where Solaris also does AM64 and Sparc. Xen and UML also don't support multiprocessor machines, if I'm not mistaken, and FreeBSD jails do not support things like resource managers, in case of a jail process bringing the whole machine (and other jails) down. Sun has its Fair Share Scheduler, where you can bind a container to one or more processors.

Openvms is downloadable too. Most reliable OS.

[zymano]

http://www.openvms.org/

A new operating system every year but software that can't be ported is the still the main problem. Why don't you people realize this. It's the software that is the problem . The software vendors are targeting only a few distributions. Windows .

Don't fall for the trap

[Anonymous Coward]

Ulrich Drepper posted this to the libc-alpha (Glibc) mailing list today. "Some people might have heard about Sun's release of the Solaris sources under their dubious license. This license is obviously intended to be incompatible with the GPL. Therefore:

Nobody who intends to contribute to glibc must look at anything but the public header files of the Solaris libc and related libraries.

(Emph. mine) Don't fall for the Solaris trap!

Re:Don't fall for the trap

[Donny Smith]

> Don't fall for the Solaris trap!

How is that informative? If anything, that is stupid. FUD the Red Hat way. Woo - I'm scared, my mouse hand is trembling as I'm clicking on that download link...

First, 99.9% percent of those who try will never see thieir libc contents (or, can't understand them).
Second, it's not that Drepper is some legal expert. Furthermore he has vested interest - the fewer folks look at Solaris the better for him and Red Hat stock price.

Those who can think with their own head should read the FAQ and licensing terms themselves rather than listen legal advice of a coder...

www.sun.com/software/communitysource/faq.xml

Re:License summary anyone?

[LeninZhiv]

Have a gander: (Basically I think the answers are "yes", "wait for the source code, this is a binary distribution", and "I don't think so".)

ENTITLEMENT for
SOLARIS 10 3/05 OPERATING SYSTEM

THIS ENTITLEMENT EVIDENCES YOUR AUTHORIZED SCOPE OF USE UNDER THE TERMS
OF THE SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THE SUN SOFTWARE
INDICATED BELOW (THE SLA) UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED IN WRITING BETWEEN YOU AND
SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC. (SUN). Capitalized terms not defined in this document
have the meanings ascribed to them in the SLA. These terms will
supersede any inconsistent or conflicting terms in the SLA.

Licensee/Company: Entity in receipt of Software from an authorized source
Beginning Date of License Term: the date of receipt of this Entitlement
Software: Solaris 10 3/05
Permitted Use: Commercial Use
License Term: Perpetual (subject to termination under the SLA)
Licensed Unit: Registered Computer System
Licensed unit Count: Unlimited
Additional Terms:

1.0 License to Develop. You are authorized to develop software programs
utilizing Software. If you desire to develop software programs which
incorporate portions of Software ("Developed Programs"), the following
provisions apply: (i) you may not modify or add to application programming
interfaces associated with Software; (ii) you are not licensed to use fonts
within Software to develop printing applications unless you have secured valid
licenses from the appropriate font suppliers; (iii) incorporation of portions of
Motif in Developed Programs may require reporting of copies of Developed
Programs to Sun;
and (iv) you will indemnify and defend Sun and its licensors from any
claims, including attorneys' fees, which arise from or relate to distribution or
use of Developed Programs to the extent these claims arise from or relate to the
development performed by you. This Section 1.0 does not apply to the Sun Java
System Application Server Platform Edition 8, Sun Java System Message
Queue 3.5, Sun Java System Directory Server 5, and Java 2 Platform, Standard
Edition (J2SE) included in or bundled with the Software.
2.0 Sun Java Studio Enterprise for Evaluation Only. You may only use the Java
Studio Enterprise (Studio) bundled or embedded with the Sun Java System
Application Server Standard Edition portions of Software for Evaluation Use
unless you purchase a separate license from Sun. Studio may contain a time out
mechanism.

3.0 Sun Java System Directory Server 5. This Section 3.0 applies only
to the Sun Java System Directory Server 5 portion of the Software.
3.1. Definitions.
(a) "Directory Instance(s)" means an instance of the Sun Java System
Directory Server process, slapd, running on a server.
(b) "Entry(ies)" means a single Distinguished Name ("DN") and its
associated attributes.
(c) "Enterprise Wide" means your entire enterprise network.
3.2 License Grant. Sun grants you a non-exclusive and non-transferable
license
for the internal use only of Sun Java System Directory Server 5 (Directory
Server) (where you control, manage, configure and otherwise use the software)
for your internal business use and not for resale or redistribution in any
manner and only for the number of Entries for which the corresponding
fee has been paid. Subject to the limitations of the previous sentence, you may
provide services with Directory Server to users outside of your commercial legal
entity, if any; provided that you may not permit any such user to control, manage or
configure Directory Server.
3.3 Additional Use Conditions.
(a) Directory Server may contain, at no charge, up to an aggregate maximum of
200,000 Entries, across any and all Directory Instances running
Enterprise Wide.
For the purposes of this Section 3.3(a) only, Entries exclude Solaris 10
operating system entries that do not define users.
(b) You may install and run multiple instances of the Sun Java System
Directory Server Console client on multiple computers and platforms for remote
and distributed administration of servers and applications.

Linux vs, branded *nix?

[Savage-Rabbit]

I've never understood the significant advantages of branded *nixes over BSD and linux.... My school runs Solaris, and I find it to be a solid *nix, but why would anyone pay (a large sum of) money for it?


Traditionally the branded *nixes have been more stable than Linux, performed better especially on large multipro systems, been guaranteed to work practically 100% of the time on certified hardware, been better tested and not on the OS using public like Linux still is to a large extent. Furthermore, with the big brands, if you have a mysterious bug or kernel panic you get a number to call and somebody works on it 16 hours a day till the bug is fixed. I can vouch for that last part, I used to do it for a living with a major Branded *nix. I will freely admit, however, that Linux is catching up with the branded *nixes. It has practically killed them off on most stand alone workstations and it is eating into the small to medium server market which is probably also why Sun is doing this.

Piffle

[onyxruby]

Last I checked Microsoft made a fortune selling the OS instead of hardware. Hardware is cut throat with incredibly margins whereas with Operating Systems your margins are incredibly high. The only reason at all Sun or Apple can make decent margins on their hardware is because they are the sole providers of their proprietary systems.

Sun simply isn't making the money that you think it is.

Re:Piffle

[mstefanus]

Microsoft can make that much money from selling their OS is because their dominance in the market. They can pressure people to increase their dominance even more.

If Apple sells an x86 version of Mac OS X and want to increase their market share in the PC OS market, they won't be able to charge as much as Windows. The competition is also hard and rough in the PC world. Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, etc2. Another problem is that there are too many variations with PC hardwares. Apple are comfortable with the limited hardwares available for Macs. It is easier to ensure that devices work smoothly and integrated with the OS.

Re:Well, so much for the warm fuzzies.

[Soko]

Trust RedHat? More than Sun. All of RedHat's products are published under the GPL. The license is Free, as in speech. I can even download the SRPMS if I wish, without paying them a dime.

Sure, I need to pay for support for each copy I run, but there's other distros out there that will run most anything RHEL does if they piss me off enough. Fedora is also a RedHat sponsored project, and for that they don't really care how many machines I, as an end user or developer, deploy. They appreciate the bug reports I send them though.

If the app I want is only certified on RedHat, it's a commercial app, and I might as well use Solaris if I'm going the proprietary route anyway.

Maybe I am being paranoid, but I can't shake the feeling that Sun is "playing the OSS game" - they don't want to participate in the community, they're playing games to see how much of the OSS community's strength they can steal.

When will I trust them? When they either GPL Open Solaris or make it plain as plain can be that they will not use thier patents against any OSS developer - even RedHat.

Soko

Re:Openvms is downloadable too. Most reliable OS.

[pchan-]

Sure, except that it runs on VAX, Alpha, and IA64 (Itanium), none of which is easy to come by for the layman.

from their faq

There are no plans to provide a native port of HP OpenVMS for any systems based on [IA32 or] AMD Opteron.

Conflicted interests

[daithimacseoin]

To what extent is the type of story that slashdot publishes influenced by the amount of revenue that can be generated by banner advertising related to that story ?

(Just noticed the big sun.com advertisement at the top of the homepage)

Re:Cheap Sun hardware

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh come on, where's your sense of geekiness?! Sun hardware is cool! Give me my E250 over some boring beige box running Linux any day.

Scott.... Is that you?

Re:This story is 3 months old

[compass46]

Uhhhh, because this is the final release version of Solaris 10. Previously it was only available as a beta.

I read your lips and you were still wrong. ;)