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Taking a Look at Nexenta's Blend of Solaris and Ubuntu
Ahmed Kamal writes "What happens when you take a solid system such as Ubuntu Hardy, unplug its Linux kernel, and plug in a replacement OpenSolaris kernel? Then you marry Debian's apt-get to Solaris' zfs file-system? What you get is Nexenta Core Platform OS. Let's take Nexenta for a quick spin, installing and configuring this young but promising system."
These are the types of stories I miss on /. No, politics, no civil procedure/court news, no DRM wars. Just plain old news for nerds (even if it doesn't matter all that much).
It's not possible to compile Opensolaris without downloading and using a whole bunch of binary components which are distributed under a proprietary license. (see here for details.
This is in stark contrast to OpenBSD (and to a lesser degree NetBSD and/or FreeBSD -both of which include proprietary binary-only blobs). Their license is OSI approved, but you can't compile a working system using only the parts that are open source.
And this is after three and a half years, guys.
We need to prevent another monoculture in the information sector, even in open source. If everyone uses the same kernel, they will all have the same vulnerabilities. Safety in numbers means having more than one popular kernel.
So come help rewrite them.
Thus is the power of open source. If you don't like something, change it
I have been working with Solaris for many years. When OpenSolaris was announced, I jumped for joy at what could be accomplished. When it was just a re-release of Solaris major, I said, ok, well, it is a certified Unix(tm) and now open source. But when they started working on Indiana, their replacement for the old Solaris system, I again jumped for joy, a chance to remove the cruft, while keeping ZFS and other Solaris goodies. When Ian jumped on the project, I thought, HOLY cow, we can get Debian GNU/Solaris. Well...... Guess what, they had to re-implement dpkg, why, well, I don't rightly know. Sure, you can install the old packages on the system and you now get a network repository, but darn it, why not just go with the darned proven system. Their current ipkg will break a system if the upgrade doesn't go well. I know dpkg can theoretically do this, but why re-code something that has had YEARS of testing and is used by almost half of the Linux community? I don't get it. Why the heck did they decide to re-implement something that could work so well? Just because it is GPL doesn't taint the core OS, it sits in userland. This must be so that they can sell proprietary Indiana builds to those who don't want to play out in the open. That is the only reason I can see. I really hoped for a good package system, but instead, we get a "me-too" system. It just doesn't make sense. And yes, I have been following OpenSolaris since it was barely usable, about nv 40 or something like that. I really wanted an old school Unix to survive, but at this point, I can't see it happening. They are now, not "Unix" they are "Not Linux" and I don't think they can handle the new market. Their Open Source strategy doesn't make sense. Their new storage line, I cannot see where this has a market. Sure, you get support, but once it is up and running well, there isn't much need for that support. There are much cheaper solutions for the SMB to MB segment, with much better support plans. I hope they survive for MySQL, VirtualBox, Java and NetBeans' sake, but I am not quite sure about it. I cannot find a revenue stream that they are first in class for anymore. Their workstations are a joke. I put together a home made Ultra 24 with the same specs for half of what they are asking. This was when they used the slower Q6600 quad cores. I see they upgraded. For outfitting a small to medium development group, I can't see going with the support premium. I know, support, etc... but hey, I can buy a service plan separately for OpenSolaris and when the H/W fails, just buy a new quad core workstation, which will be faster than the one it is replacing. I can't see the price premium. Apple is another story. Their system is integrated and will only work on their hardware. Sun is trying to compete in the commodity OS market. I just don't see it happening. Comments are welcome.
One Token Ring to Rule them All, One Search Engine to Find Them, One WAN to bring them in, and TCP/IP Bind them...
Well, the problem with Red Hat is it isn't as popular. Most people who know Linux know or at least have heard of Ubuntu, and know that it is easy to use, on the other hand Red Hat isn't as popular and so while there might be a small number of people who would only use it if it was based off of Red Hat, more people use Ubuntu than Red Hat and so it only is logical to base it off of Ubuntu.
That's one of my problems with Linux. Ubuntu has been out for what--less than 4 years, and popular for less than that? Before Ubuntu was the big thing, it was Gentoo. Etc etc, and before that, Redhat. (ignoring, Fedora, Suse, etc and of course the parent distro of Ubuntu--debian--has been around forever as well)...before that, slackware. And so on.
So far Ubuntu seems to have decent staying power (and most importantly--*one* man with money behind it). It just seems crazy to me that Red Hat which virtually WAS linux for the first decade of Linux has been relegated to near irrelevance?
>really compelling reasons I should go through the Debian/Ubuntu learning curve.
A 7 year old child can?
I guarantee RH is the most popular in the enterprise, which is how they want it. RH gave up fighting for the Linux desktop, which they see as irrelevant and unprofitable.
So, to answer you question (mark, really), RH has only been "relegated to near irrelevance" on the desktop, and that happened only because they didn't want it.
Put identity in the browser.
You are missing the point. The FSF is not also distributing the libc in question. You can distribute the CDDL libc, and you can distribute the GPL'd app, but if you distribute them together then the combination has to be under the GPL (slight simplification, the exact requirements are slightly different, but that's effectively what it means) and this is not possible with a GPL-incompatible license.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Wait, you mean that they saw the desktop was a market full of people who didn't want to pay for an OS, and didn't need to pay for support contracts, and realized that if nobody was paying them it was a useless market to chase?
Holy shit, it's almost like Red Hat aren't completely inept. Who knew that a company based in the same city as MIT and Harvard might be able to find a few people who are good technologists AND some who are good at business (not to mention I've heard their legal department isn't too shabby either...)
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
That's one of my problems with Linux. Ubuntu has been out for what--less than 4 years, and popular for less than that? Before Ubuntu was the big thing, it was Gentoo. Etc etc, and before that, Redhat. (ignoring, Fedora, Suse, etc and of course the parent distro of Ubuntu--debian--has been around forever as well)...before that, slackware. And so on.Z
While Gentoo might have been the distro with the most buzz before Ubuntu, the audience for Gentoo was never the same as the audience for Ubuntu. Each has had its share of buzz, but for totally different reasons.
So far Ubuntu seems to have decent staying power (and most importantly--*one* man with money behind it). It just seems crazy to me that Red Hat which virtually WAS linux for the first decade of Linux has been relegated to near irrelevance?
Irrelevance? By what standard? Red Hat has a market capitalization of $1.64 billion. You think they got it from their rich uncle?
The reasons you don't hear a lot of buzz about Red Hat on Slashdot are A.) Red Hat is well-established, produces a stable, reliable, quality product -- and that kind of thing doesn't make the news; and B.) most of the people reading Slashdot are not Red Hat customers. You can't fiddle around with Fedora and decide "Red Hat is irrelevant." Talk to me when you actually pay for a Red Hat Enterprise support contract, then tell me you're going to give it up and go back to Gentoo. I believe if you investigate you'll find that Red Hat enjoys a quite healthy popularity -- in the markets it cares about.
Breakfast served all day!
"Solaris" is a reference to the Sun (and by extension, to Sun Microsystems) in Latin. "Ubuntu" is Zulu for humanity.
An elegant blend would be "Ilanga" (Zulu for Sun) or "Humanitas" (Latin for Ubuntu).
Don't mind me. I just hate portmanteaux.