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Open Solaris Derivative Available
tezbobobo writes "Well, Open Solaris has only been available a matter of days and already there are new projects available. SchilliX is an OpenSolaris-based live CD and distribution that is intended to help people discover OpenSolaris. When installed on a hard drive, it also allows developers to develop and compile code in a pure OpenSolaris environment. More details are available on the author's blog."
Thursday, March 24, 2005
Pure OpenSolaris boots on x86
Today, I have been able to boot from a disk that was empty before I did install a self compiled OpenSolaris on it.
So we now reached a certain limit that makes it possible to start with creating a OpenSolaris based x86 distribution at BerliOS.
Battle of *nix(es) is on!!
In case the Open Solaris site goes down or you just don't feel like clicking two links on the page
Torrents!
Technically, can't I change one line of code or some small functionality and call it a derivative? It even sounds like they didn't do much: "When installed on a hard drive, it also allows developers to develop and compile code in a pure OpenSolaris environment."
It seems just a cut-down version (text only) of Solaris, so where's the improvement?
Enough said.
does it have cdrecord?
What is the *primary* reason anyone would use Open Solaris over Linux, *BSD, and Windows?
When I use Linux, it is because I am hosting/running existing software like Trac/Subversion/PostgreSQL/... which appear most heavily used/tested on Linux than any other platform.
When I use FreeBSD, it is because I am hosting/running/distributing my own software and I don't want to deal with LGPL requirements regarding binaries linked to LGPL C libs (yes, I consultant an IP attorney about differences between GPL and LGPL requirements and also consulted FSF.ORG).
When I use Windows, it is because I am running software that is not available on either FreeBSD or Linux. And also for distributing software on a platform that has the largest marketshare.
When I use Open Solaris, it is because ???
You might know the author from cdrecord. He has a rather low opinion of the ide-scsi/ide-cd component of the kernel in general and Linus in particular. Good to see him where he is happy.
And solaris has a kick-ass kernel, no doubt about that. Debian/SunOS is the ultimate Unix environment in my mind. One day it will become reality, or so I hope...
Honestly i think your Jumping the gun a little. This wont happen to solaris , solaris will always be solaris and compatible with itself . If this distros goes so far as to be incompatible with Solaris main then it will cease to be a solaris.
Solaris is an OS as opposed to linux which is just a kernel
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The pointy-hairs did get it eventually, but they RIF'd us and let external people do it instead. Meanwhile millions of $s of R&D money was wasted on stupid projects that were not needed, ill-concieved, cancelled, etc.
That's one of the benefits of open source. :)
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between solaris and linux ?
One sucks, and the other doesn't.
Or it might be the other way around.
They are two different OS and run on different kernels for a start(note that linux is just a kernel anyway)
Linux has a broader compatibility with x86 hardware
Solaris has by default a better permissions system
Linux is under the GNU GPL and thus a little freer than OpenSolaris
Solaris has far better NFS support , not that you would notice unless your running with allot of clients
Solaris is certified POSIX complient and linux is just pretty much POSIX compliant (mainly due to the cost of being declared posix compliant , and the rate the linux kernel evolves)
Those are some of many many many differences.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
No need to smear the OSS community. That describes the non-OSS community perfectly also.
There are people who hack for the love of it, and there are people who write code because they have a vision of making the world a better place through better technology... you just don't hear about them too much. They don't feel the need to self-promote.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
It looks like a interesting distro, and I'd be partially interested in downloading it and taking a look at it if wasn't for the whining and complaining about the GPL he makes. I don't like the idea of my contributions potentially being distributed/used in a closed-source project [total value of my code: err.. about 2 cents] if I contribute to an open-source (GPL or Compatible license) project, and the GPL gives me that control [not that I'm concerned about it]. I've not got much code out there [mostly really small bug-fix snippets], but what is out there is covered under the GPL and anyone can use it under the GPL.
Not that I'm saying Solaris is a bad OS, (OOB it's pretty much worthless until you add GNU tools to it) but it's a damn sight better than Xenix or NT 4.51.
>But they are both UNIX-like systems right, with everything you could /, etc.)
>expect from such an operating system? (chown, ls,
Solaris is full-blooded SysV, Linux is a hodgepodge of SysV and BSD style Unix.
When I was a kid, we only had one Darth.
Just to emphasize... According to Eric Boutilier in his blog "under the new Solaris/Opensolaris model, in order for a Sun developer to put code into regular Solaris (the Solaris that Sun ships), he/she will have to put it into Opensolaris first."
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Heh, it should have been called "Scholaris"
" Yes, Linux is such a "mess" that Sun have been _forced_ to copy it !" Actually, it looks like the reverse is already starting to happen. And in the past the linux kernel guys were able to get info from solaris and solaris engineers. here Some comments are negative some are positive but Solaris is mentioned the most by far out of any of the commercial Unixes. I can't find the link right now but I remember someone saying that back in the day Sun was a lot more open with it's technology. Sun engineers would publish info about their hardware and software. Especially when someone was having some sort of trouble. Then they got a little more closed down. Probably when they were making a ton of money. Sounds like Scott McNealy recognizes that and wants Sun to go back to being more open.
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BSDs more likely than Linux because of licensing restrictions. Although a good number of drivers for the linux kernel are written as modules and don't have to have to be GPL'd. In fact there are a number of drivers that are released under a BSD license as well as proprietary, binary-only drivers. Also more hardware venders might support the Solaris x86 platform. nVidia released Solaris 10 x86/x64 drivers.
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Wouldn't this be good for hosting? You could sell zones w/ root like linode.com does with UML. Is anyone doing this or planning on it?
He does cdrecord, not xcdroast. And he does use open standards, that's why it works on several unix OSs. Just because linux developers make some random change does not mean its magically an "open standard", its non-standard, linux-specific behaviour. Linux making random stupid changes and not informing people who use the now altered API is entirely the fault of linux developers. If you don't like it, use an OS that doesn't do this, or complain to the linux developers who created the problem.
BSD is an OS as opposed to linux which is just a kernel, and yet look at how fragmented BSD is.
No, BSD is the variation of UNIX which was put together by the research lab at the university of california. Unlike BSD there never was a single System V release, whereas BSD had several releases from the university of california until 4.4.
After that, it fragmented to NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, and lastly DragonflyBSD.
Linux NFS is improving dramaticly, but still has some way to go. NFS on 2.4.20 is dog slow, on 2.6.10 using TCP/IP it's just noticably slow.
I use solaris on I/O intensive stuff (in my case the hardware I have is better for it too, which is the major difference) and linux for the CPU intensive stuff (fast intel/amd chips are cheap).
The funny thing is the stuff that really shows the difference in CPU is some badly written java programs, which run tolerably on a fast linux box but take more than 60 seconds to update drop down menus on a 4x400MHz Sun with lots of memory.
When you shift gigabyte of files about you really notice the speed difference.
IT was ment to be a-lot , shouldn't leave spell checker on auto correct
If you meant ment to mean meant, you should leave the spell checker on auto-correct or allot a lot more time to your dictionary.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
I do believe I've heard that it's already running on the sbus-based sun4u's (Ultra 1 and Ultra 2), and there actually is a lot of interest in getting this for the sun4m's (Sparc 4, Sparc 5, Sparc 10, Sparc 20).
It'd be kinda fun to pull my old IPX out of the closet again to try cramming OpenSolaris into it :-)
We apologize for the inconvenience.
As a desktop Solaris and Linux user, I would say no. At least for me, Linux, especially with the 2.6 kernel is *much* more responsive on the desktop, plus Solaris is missing many pieces that really help for the desktop (like Alsa). Granted, you can get audio running on Sun (I wrote the ARTS Solaris driver for KDE), but you're much better off under Linux.
Also, at least on Sparc, Sun's X server doesn't appear to support a number of key features useful on the desktop, and Xorg doesn't run on Sparc Solaris due to missing kernel support. X86 might be better in this regard, though.
Also, for desktop use, Solaris only has a fraction of the drivers that Linux has.
Now maybe Solaris 10 is a bit better, but Solaris is much more optimized for the server than the desktop.
This post is encrypted twice with ROT-13. Documenting or attempting to crack this encryption is illegal.
The bigotry being displayed here is astonishing. Between whining about cdrecord, making uninformed snipes about how Linux is better, and writing off Solaris because of the CDDL, it's a pretty poor show. I know slashdot can do better than this :S
... come on. The fellow can be abrasive but I don't see how that's important here, and he can do what he wants with his code. He did license it under the GPL in the first place, which I for one appreciate, so we can use it and the extended DVD-supporting derivatives of it available in Linux distros. I don't see why him deciding *not* to give away *more* of his work draws such incredible indignation here. Sure, it'd be nice (FSF zealous would argue "morally required"), but really it's his work and his code.
note: I have concerns about the CDDL too, but it ONLY MATTERS if you want to contribute your code into the core codebase, use Solaris code in your own, or redistribute modified Solaris code. The contributor agreement only matters if you want to have your code merged into Solaris - you can simply maintain an outside patch/dist if you have a problem with it. I'm 99% sure none of the loud complainers here will be doing any of the above anyway.
I also tried Solaris 10 - and got rid of it. It's not much of a desktop yet - old software, and it needs a comprehensive package collection of libs and GNU tools REALLY badly. It does, however, serve some people's needs fantastically, especially in the server space. Let's not write something off entirely because "sun are bad, mmkay" or because it doesn't have the latest GNOME.
As for cdrecord
switch (postscript_primitive) {
[10 pages of code]
}
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
He, like many people, does not use linux as his primary OS. He is just nice enough to make software that works on linux. He relied on an API that is not supposed to be changed. Do you honestly expect him to spend all his time searching changelogs of various operating systems checking to see if the developers are changing stable APIs on him? If you are going to alter the API, it would be reasonable to email people who write important software that relies on that API. And there is no reason to change the API, linux developers simply do not consider keeping an API stable to be important.