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Ian Murdock Joins Sun
RLiegh sends us the second piece of news today featuring Debian founder Ian Murdock. In an entry on his blog, Murdock announced that he is joining Sun Microsystems as their chief operating platforms officer. As he put it in his opensolaris post, this "...basically means I'll be in charge of Sun's operating system strategy, spanning Solaris and Linux." In all likelihood one of his first priorities will be "closing the usability gap" between Solaris and Linux.
Im not sure where Murdoch is coming from here.
GNU tools are on one of the CS's that Sun ships, and I install gnu tools anyways. It's there and easy to use. Sun supports its SunOS well.
Unless Murdoch is reffering to the wonderful "usability" of old and haphazardly done Debian packages, well erm.. let Sun take care of themselves. I like relatively new user-based programs (like, not from the early 90's).
Typed on a Debian Testing machine. Debating to go with Ubuntu..
It's been so long that Microsoft has had the computing world locked into Windows and their formats that I think I've just gotten use to assuming that whichever OS/company is on top will mean that everyone else is locked out.
With Linux code and formats so open who's to say in a few years Solaris won't be on top - at least on the server side. It's not like the Samba guys toiling away to unlock Microsoft protocols and scrambling to keep up with every monkeywrench Microsoft throws at them. It's all right out in the open. Kind of hard to get use to that concept.
Not saying Solaris is going to take over the world anytime soon...
Didn't he recently talk down about debian?
Not that he wasn't right, but being the founder... doesn't that say something about what we might expect of him at SUN?
He wants to make Solaris as useable as Linux? Um, what about shooting for the best usability in the industry, champ?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Solaris has already been eclipsed by Linux. Sun hired Murdoch to help Solaris' customers to migrate to Linux.
Never underestimate the power of OSS and determined technoid geeks smoking marijuana.
I was hoping for a Solaris 11 release in my lifetime.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Earlier today, following the other Debian story, someone replied to the story as Ian. I wonder if it really was him.
Well, nobody can complain about Slashdot being slow in this case.
How about closing the usability gap between Solaris and OSX instead? ;)
As the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD project has shown, it is possible to port the Debian userland (including the excellent apt-get package management system) to other kernels besides Linux. I would like to see Debian/Solaris project come out of Ian's endeavors. If not that, then at least an upgrade of the current Solaris userland to make it more Linux-like.
Left 404: Why the RIGHT is WRONG
If Sun hopes that Ian will somehow make Solaris more attractive to the open source community, I don't think that's going to happen. Solaris is what it is, all the technical and legal arguments have been made, and people have made up their minds. Unlike golf-playing IT managers, people who pick open source software are generally not going to be swayed by figureheads.
What Ian can do, however, is effect changes inside Sun. For example, if he can convince Sun to drop dual licensing for Solaris, it could more easily become a mainstream open-source platform.
I knew chaos theory had a future in computers.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
In other words, democracy has given people exactly what they want. Oh no, boo hoo, the largest portion of the population is comfortable and happy.
Who are you to say a football player is less important than a programmer? Typical geek chauvinism. Only our kind of talent counts. The world should bow to OUR agenda (witness the "you shouldn't be licensed to use a PC until you understand how one works crowd). And DAMN IT, Dr. Who is better than other TV, even if everyone else says otherwise. I say so, and I am so smart that I must be right.
You know what though? History has shown that dictatorships and eugenics don't advance the best and brightest, they advance the middle and average. Why? Because every dictator needs the support of a mob. Mobs only support people like them. And by definition, every mob member is on average,well, average.
====
Crudely Drawn Games
We all know he only got the job because his Dad's company OWNS the newspaper.
There already is one. It's called Nexenta and it's a melding of Solaris with the Ubuntu userland. They have a LiveCD you can try out and everything. Worked pretty nicely when I tried it back in September.
At which point he stood up and threw his wheelchair at the wall.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Excuse me for being offtopic, but did anyone get their free solaris cds that were offered a while ago yet?
Debian isn't the best model for usability for non-technical users; glacial release schedules and lack of desktop environment coherence to offset your stability is, well, what you get with Solaris already.
Sun should poach Mark Shuttleworth if they want someone who can make a solid OS into one that you can give to random people to use without it blowing their minds.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled"
AC, thanks for the first "Mac fanboy" tag I've ever gotten. Your people skills are top notch!
Your ad hominem misses the fact I don't own a recent Mac or OS X. I recycled my 604 powermac clone (but kept the scsi drive with BeOS and System 7) some time ago. I did recommend a late model MacBook to my mid-fifties parent without a second thought however. She enjoys it.
I'll stick with cheap x86 hardware (and wish it was inexpensive PowerPC), thanks. I enjoy the wide range of capabilities of the most common platform.
Get on ruling the world with your laughable OpenOffice and awful attitude. Don't let me hold you up-- a few linux distros have enough sense to take some cues *from* Apple's philosophy, and are doing well because of it. I applaud them!
(someone has to soothe the savage zealot, hope your blood pressure is lower buddy)
There's a difference between having a democracy as a form of government and a democracy as a form of project administration.
In other words, it works for the former and sucks for the latter.
If Apple or Microsoft or the Linux kernel were run by democracies none of them would be as successful as they are today.
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
When the GPL3 is released, it *is* going to cause a major split in the FOSS world and rumors are high that solaris will go with it.
I know I'll jump, because the latest novell/MS deal has clearly shown that the GPL3 is more than needed, and the linux kernel is going to stay stuck at version 2, because linus is a great coder but a lousy long range tactician. He uses the ostrich head in the sand technique for stratergerizing, which...never works of course. Along with the dev tools, etc, going to GPL3, this will be quite an interesting year.
And I doubt Ian is unaware of these things, in fact, I bet that is one of the reasons he is at Sun now, because they need a visionary and someone with strategic big picture long range planning skills.
Now I am purely guessing, I have zero insider knowledge, but watch and see if I am right a few months from now.
At least appears greener than Debian.
I wonder if he'll be a capable exec though. The politics is rough and we don't know what kind of authority/reach he has. For example, budgets? hire/fires? or is it more.... Figurehead type meet-and-greeter. Every organization that can afford them has a stable of ponies just for this purpose.
Good luck to him. I really hope it works out considering the disparaging remarks posted earlier today.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I reckon this is part of Sun's attempt at looking friendlier to Linux-o-philes.
Maybe they should change their company name to something more old-fashioned and homely, like Murdoch & Sun - Makers of software and other intangibles.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Taking this a bit seriously are we? It's freaking SOFTWARE. Equating a person that thinks that a software engineering project might come off better if it is not done by a committee with a eugenicist? Get a grip.
In other words, democracy has given people exactly what they want. Oh no, boo hoo, the largest portion of the population is comfortable and happy.
Democracy has enabled people of mediocre intelligence to rule where only the gifted and talented once ruled. What do we have now? Incompetent governments and corporate dictatorships ruling the people who think they are truly free.
Who are you to say a football player is less important than a programmer? Typical geek chauvinism. Only our kind of talent counts
A mentally retarded child is equal to Plato. To say otherwise would be an affront to progress and democracy.
You know what though? History has shown that dictatorships and eugenics don't advance the best and brightest, they advance the middle and average. Why? Because every dictator needs the support of a mob. Mobs only support people like them. And by definition, every mob member is on average,well, average.
Successful dictatorships do not need to appease their peasants and never did. Dictators promote those who are capable to positions of power around that dictator: knights, nobles, lords, and etc. The average people remain subjects.
Eugenics is not a form of government, therefore its inclusion into your argument is rather silly.
Really? I see it the other way around:
In (modern) government, everyone has to be allowed to play the game. Everyone from the lowliest illiterate to the degenerate to the ignorant is allowed to vote. The proof is in the results.
In a project, people you don't like can be kicked out with ease.
We cannot allow a usability gap!
Apologies to the late Mr Kubrick.
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
Sorry. I see the word "Murdock" and I have to yell the name. Or act crazy and fly a helicopter.
Market capitalisation of Sun Microsystems: $22Bn.
Market capitalisation of Apple, Inc: $79Bn.
I think it's more plausible that Apple buys Sun.
1729 = 9^3 + 10^3 = 1^3 + 12^3
"Snapple"? No, too fruity...
Cool funny t-shirts for geeks, gamers and everyone else
Selfishness is what kills human endeavors. People want to be comfortable and happy, and in doing so, they strangle other plans that might help all of us. They go too far. That's why they need leaders. If you let most people pick their future, they'll screw it up. If your only concern for our population is that they're comfortable and happy, you can win elections by handing out free Big Macs and Budweiser. Is that the human future you want? On the contrary, eugenicists and dictators produce some of the best people in history -- they're just outnumbered. Check your facts before posting, please!
Anti-Globalism, Traditionalism, and FreeBSD.
I completely agree. The Leadership Principle is the only effective way to steer the ship of state. The Leadership principle is older than civilisation itself, going back to the first organised tribal society - yet it is also effectively practiced by all modern corporations. It simply means having a leader at the head who directs and plans the best interests of the whole group. He has authority to command, yet must also be entirely reasponsible to the group. The army is organised this way also. Starting with the Commander in Chief, there is a chain of command and rank right down to the private. Through this there is a unity of purpose, a rapid execution of orders, and the most efficient and effective organisation designed by man. Imagine the army using the democratic method, voting amongst themselves as to what action to take! "Should we go over the top and engage the enemy, or should we go on a picnic?". Can you imagine the useless mob such an army would become? They would undoubtedly be slaughtered by any enemy that used the Leadership Principle. Thus it is with the ship of state. Only those who wish us to be destroyed would advocate democracy. And another thing: leaders who are of their own people (and not driven by their greed for financial reward) are most likely to do what is best for their people. History has shown this to be the case.
http://www.corrupt.org