Sun Says Project Indiana is Not a Linux Copy

eldavojohn writes "Ian Murdock (Debian author & Sun's OS Chief) made some comments about Project Indiana that many have said is an attempt to make Solaris simply "more Linux-like." But Murdock quashes any concerns that this is just another Linux clone — muddying up the waters of distribution selection. He says that it's more a 'best of both worlds' attempt to make an OS that appeals to a broader audience. From the article, "Project Indiana will include a revamped package management system, which should prove popular with developers unaccustomed to Solaris. The OS has some clunky, archaic aspects, and Murdock thinks the new package system will modernize Solaris.""

Comments

NexentaOS

[Jack Malmostoso]

Apart from being an official Sun project, how is this project different from NexentaOS? http://www.gnusolaris.org/ Any explanation is appreciated!

Re:NexentaOS

[Ginger Unicorn]

i just read the article and it seems project indiana is just solaris adopting some linux-like features, such as a 6 monthly community version on top of the 3 yearly enterprise release (think red hat) plus a new package management system, as the solaris one is apparently rather clunky.

It has nothing to do with blending it with linux in any way. It seems they are trying to make it appeal to the linux community in order to reap the benefits of community feedback, without actually just giving in and GPL'ing solaris.

Where have we seen this before?

[wellingj]

Oh yea, It looks like Ian Murdock is making Solaris more like Debian/Ubuntu, RedHat/Fedora and SLED/OpenSUSE.
If it has worked for other distributions, it will probably work well for Solaris, especially since they don't
have to bicker over what goes into upstream or not. Not that debate is a bad thing... not by any stretch.

Re:Pithy Aphorism: "If you cannot beat them ..."

[packetmon]

Out of curiousity have you ever even used Solaris (http://www.infiltrated.net/sunDesk.jpg) I have do and have for the past 8+ years. Did it occur that maybe Sun is trying to woo Linux users over. One can get into the whole "Linux/BSD/Solaris" penis envy arguments about the pros and cons of each so here goes:

http://www.infiltrated.net/openpimp.jpg (my openbsd screen)
http://www.infiltrated.net/currentPentestDesktop.j pg (linux (Backtrack screen))
http://www.infiltrated.net/sunDesk.jpg (Solaris Nevada)


I could go on with Scientific Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD screens if you'd like, I use most on a daily basis. Linux for a lot of Asterisk use (professionally), OpenBSD for firewalls and security (professionally), Solaris for DB stuff (professionally), and so on. Anyhow, perhaps Sun is trying to simply trying woo Linux users over to using Sun nothing more nothing less.. Highly doubtful Sun is aiming to be Linux. Sorry to inform the zealots before you come along posting a "but my Linux penis does x recursive foo bar zip zilch sequencing faster that..." ... Look there are certain things that should not be left to Linux at least in my shops and that's what counts to me not what you think or someone's distorted benchmarkings, and no I will not get into zealotry here. Stating facts.

Re:Bummer...

[Anonymous Coward]

They copyied the GPL code from linux kernel and did put it as CDDL code.

They copyied > 1 KLOC.

Re:Why look at Solaris now?

[TheRaven64]

Also, unlike Linux, large parts of it's kernel are not constantly being rewritten You know, one thing that struck me in the scheduler discussion yesterday was that no one said 'WTF? Why are you replacing a (working) core component of the kernel with a more-or-less untested one in a minor release?' With that kind of commitment to stability, I'm glad I don't run Linux anywhere important.

The sincererest form of flattery

[Zigurd]

Sun has been groping for a way to compete with Microsoft for over 10 years. Well, "groping" might be too harsh, considering the strategy consisted mainly of denial about the fact that Windows on commodity hardware could run serious applications.

Ubuntu showed the way in both how to do it and the right business model, and Sun has done absolutely the right thing by directly imitating the Ubuntu way by becoming, effectively, a downstream Debian distro. Heck, they hired Ian Murdock to make sure you get it right. At Sun, this is probably necessary because corporate conservatism about cannibalizing revenues would have watered down a purely internal initiative.

Sun could still screw it up. There are plenty of weasel words like "two tier" in this article. But if Sun gets it right and "dissolves" Solaris into a number of userland projects and a kernel alternative to Linux (the way GNU Hurd theoretically is), and executes an a la carte support model like Canonical, they deserve to win a big slice of the business.

Re:Pithy Aphorism: "If you cannot beat them ..."

[Vintermann]

Can you please explain why your links point to a file called "spybotsd14.exe" instead of the announced jpeg images?

Re:Bummer...

[VENONA]

"my understanding is that they're not copyrightable"

OK, a derived work, even with the nonstandard bits. Good! I thought I'd heard something intimating that part of IBM being sued by SCO was about header files. But I'd gotten numb and quit following a lot of that, so maybe I misheard, and that was part of why the suit was bogus. Or maybe I heard a bunch of bull.