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Sun Developers Refute OpenSolaris Vaporware Claims
daria42 writes "It looks like an anonymous post on OSNews.com claiming OpenSolaris is vaporware was the last straw for two frustrated Sun Microsystems developers. They have responded furiously on their official Sun blogs, saying that they are currently working 'feverishly' on the project, and that it was taking so long because of the need to get rid of legal encumbrances to releasing the code. 'OpenSolaris certainly exists,' Sun kernel developer Alan Hargreaves says on his Sun blog. 'You only have to speak to anyone involved in getting it out there. There are a lot of us out there who both do and do not work for Sun.'"
Seriously who would need to refute claims like that? The sooner they get this thing out, the sooner the rumors will vaporize automatically. The rest is just a waste of time.
Tell me which one would you believe more - Microsoft claiming that they're working on patches to fix some exploits "as we speak", or they're asking users to download the patches now?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
The more time you spend "responding furiously" to "anonymous posts on OSNews.com", the less time you're spending actually being productive.
... yadda, yadda, yadda.
You'd be better of ignoring the cynics, the nay-sayers, and the anonymous blowhards, and continuing doing something productive.
Arguing on the internet is like
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
While I'm inclined to believe that Sun is really try to open up the source to Solaris, the fact that they've only been able to put up a website (which notably has more links to press releases and news articles than source code) and the source for DTrace in the months since they've stated their Great Plan to open-source Solaris, it's no wonder that members of the community are calling an open-source Solaris vaporware.
I'm Trappped at Berkeley.
It's a bit unfair to start calling something vaporware two months before the scheduled release.
(I don't work on Solaris/OpenSolaris, so I have no special knowledge about the project, except that I know people are working are working on it.)
Disclaimer: I work for a company, but I don't speak for them.
So what's the big deal?
Why not take some substantial CHUNK of partly-finished code, some chunk for which the licensing issues HAVE been resolved, slap on a disclaimer about it being pre-alpha, buggy, etc, and post it somewhere?
If it's open source, there shouldn't be Apple-Steve-Jobs-like issues about maintaining secrecy until the actual moment of release.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
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Wikileaks, no DNS
Of course the cynic in me might suggest that Sun preannounced the effort far too early, hoping it would sabotage enterprise adoption of Linux. And encourage more people to try out Solaris 10, even if Solaris 10 & Open Solaris are not the same things.
Of course people are saying it is vaporware. It's not like Sun has actually released anything. That's because it IS VAPORWARE.
The Sun guys' point is "vaporware" doesn't mean "not yet released", it means "hyped up but never likely to be released". And they object to that: they've got a clear schedule and it says July.
and in the meantime I lose $1000 a day because the kludge doesn't do its job well enough. So why won't they release it?
Then you pay for a support contract - you'll save your money in no time.
They don't *owe* you OpenSolaris. Let them do it in their own time.
It's not like Sun has actually released anything. That's because it IS VAPORWARE.
...
No. That's because it's not released yet. You didn't read the article, right? Or even the postings in the blog(s)?
So according to you everything that is announced to be released, but not released quickly enough, is vaporware.
Who needs to chill out? The people of Sun defending their product, or some kid yelling at a forum for the code to be released because he/she is getting impatient.
*sigh* indeed
Sun is working to give something away for free and all everyone does is whine and cry that they haven't gotten it soon enough. Instead of saying "Why did Sun announce it if it wasn't ready?" why don't we say - if it's not costing you anything then why don't you just shut up and wait paitently or don't bother with it at all? (Either way the shut up part applies).
Yes but Duke Nukem is actually past it's release date. I can't believe that we are wasting time calling something "vaporware" before it's release date. Make /. look a little bit biased you konw.
Yes, vaporware does mean something. But your definition is by no means the absolute truth. Many software projects that were very much intended to be released never make it out the door for many reasons (usually poor management) but they are very much vaporware.
As many others have said, Duke Nukem Forever was actually meant to be produced. They really tried (and supposedly still are) but it is a perennial favorite in Wired's vaporware awards. Why? Because it's vaporware...even though it was originally intended to be released.
Now, as for calling people retards: you should know better. To call you a retard would be an insult to those in the world who actually are mentally retarded, regardless of your IQ.
One of my good friends (still in college) is a PHB in training. (He's much more technical & intelligent than the one from Dilbert). And yet he thinks the same way as the rest of them, when it comes to OSS. Stuck in the "crufty old ways" of software development.
The problem with OSS, as he sees it, is it has yet to show that it can be consistently (and largely) profitable (stock wise). To do that, you need to show consistent gains, and have marketing plans. OSS doesn't do consistent gains and marketing plans. It's not directed enough. Also, when you create OSS, as soon as you release a new feature, all of your competition knows how you did it. That is something that really deters businesses from creating OSS.
Overall: The most successful PHBs are in it for the money. And big money doesn't exist in the OSS world. Stable money is there, if you leverage it correctly. But the PHB doesn't want stable. He wants tons. At least, that's the way it seems to me.
I have other ideas, though. I feel that there are several ways to benefit from OSS. I hope to gather a group of like-minded people, and create something truly wonderful for the OSS community. It has given me so much over the past years, and it would be wonderful to give something back.
As vile as the license Mozilla and Firefox use? More vile? Less? Or, does "vile" mean "Not GPL" now?