Wednesday December 29, 2004 64-bit AMD64 Environments, Solaris a joke???
A friend of mine recently got a Tyan S2875 motherboard and built a system. He's a Porsche mechanic by day, and hacker by night, (arguably one of the best damn Porsche mechanics in Silicon Valley;-) and wanted something that was easy to install and use. He's been waiting for Solaris 10 to FCS so he can install it on his new system, and in the meantime he's installed Debian AMD64 on it. This doesn't make sense to me, after seeing the state of Linux AMD64, but who am I to say...?
Partially, I guess I'm to blame for him using Debian, being how I touted Debian's package management system, namely APT, several years ago to wean him off of OS/2. APT is certainly a feature that many distros have pattered network updates around on various systems, some of which are used in a similar fashion on Solaris.
So, the first problem is that his DVD/CDRW drive doesn't work, and he was using a stock kernel. This works fine on Solaris, but for Linux using the stock distro kernel is not good as it loads in all types of drivers trying to get the system boot, and nobody really knows what was compiled into the kernel anyway, there could even be back doors. I'm always very strong on building your own kernel, if you must use Linux. He was told on a Debian mailing list that he would need to build his own kernel and add ide-scsi support into the kernel.
So I offered to help him build a kernel, since he didn't feel up to it, and I insisted if he wanted to use Linux he should build his own kernel. He created an account for me and I shelled into his system so I could configure and build him a kernel. Surprise, surprise...when I find out that he's not running a pure 64-bit environment since all the apps were not available on it at the time, such a KDE. So he's running a 64-bit kernel on top of sarge, the soon to be released Debian stable system which has been soon to be released for quite a while...
Well, wouldn't you know it, you can't build a 64-bit kernel on this environment unless you use a cross compiler, and you need to jump some hoops to get that working. This confuses me as Solaris can produce both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on the same system, and you can even build a kernel on a 32-bit system. This is not to mention that 32-bit apps just seem to work on Solaris AMD64 or that you don't even need to build a kernel for Solaris...but that's for another discussion.
This really did make me realize how spoiled I've become using Solaris on AMD64. I really walked away scrathing my head wondering how far along the 64-bit system is on Linux. While it seems to work fine for most people, it's somewhat held together with bubble gum. Sure, one might argue that Linux AMD64 has been around a lot longer, and that there's already more apps for it than Solaris on AMD64, but I think people should watch the application space as Solaris on AMD64 goes FCS (First Customer Ship) with Solaris 10. Most of Sun's partners that I have worked with have very positive words to say about Solaris on AMD64, and are very happy porting their software to it. It's no surprise to me, because the systems works very well. You do not have to play kernel roulette to replace specific versions, the same kernel works and will boot in either 32-bit or 64-bit. You don't need to mess around with cross compilers to get a build, you just tell the compiler if you want 32-bit or 64-bit.
So, let me ponder for a couple minutes about the comments Linus Torvalds made in this article, where he said "Solaris/x86 is a joke, last I heard. (It has) very little support for any kind of strange hardware."...ok, done, I've pondered long enough...
I don't get it, maybe he hasn't been looking closely at the current status of Linux running on AMD64, or maybe it's just not relevant to him? I don't know, but I wasn't laughing very hard trying to get his Linux AMD64 system going, and it won't be long to get Solaris Express loaded on there to let my friend see what a joke Solaris on AMD64 really is...[chortle!]
( Dec 29 2004, 10:03:16 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [10]
Tuesday December 14, 2004 Linux Compatibility on AMD64
As you can see, I'm running the Linux version of Adobe Acrobat Reader in Solaris on AMD64. This is the very latest Acrobat 5.0.9 Reader which was available for Linux on the Adobe web site a day ago. Nothing to write home about, other than it is possible to run Linux applications.
I'll be happier when we get a native Acrobat Reader for Solaris on AMD64 rather than having to run it on the Linux Compatibility. Until then, Linux Compatibility might be a good short term solution for people to migrate to Solaris on x86/AMD64.
Linux Compatibility will not be offered in the FCS of Solaris 10, but will come in a future update. AFAIK, the exact date has not been determined just yet. This is running on build 71 for all of you build trackers...
( Dec 14 2004, 03:01:05 AM PST ) Permalink
Wednesday December 08, 2004 So...you say you wanna (R)Evolution...
Dwight Evers was asking about Evolution, over on the yahoogroups solarisx86 list, as he needed the Exchange Connector. I thought I would post a pic here, which you can click on the thumbnail to show a larger picture of course.;-)
Maybe Dwight will finally have something good to say about Sun for being able to supply him with a piece of software he was wanting to use.
This is from Solaris 10 build 73, I don't know if it's in earlier builds or not, and build 72 is what is currently available on Solaris Express.
( Dec 08 2004, 11:43:31 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]
Friday December 03, 2004 Progress with nVidia!
If you click on the thumbnail, you'll see that there is progress being made with the nVidia driver. That desktop is running on the nVidia driver being worked on.
Keep your eyes posted for OpenGL support soon.;-)
( Dec 03 2004, 12:25:23 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]
Wednesday December 01, 2004 I drive a Porsche, but a Ferrari is in my trunk!
Ok, don't get the wrong impression, I've always loved my Porsche. Even though it's an older '84 Carrera Targa, this is my daily driver.
Well, I was lucky to get one of the new Acer Ferrari 3400 laptops which is certainly not powered by the sweet sound of the normally aspirated 6 cylinder 3.2L engine. This puppy is powered by an Athlon64 3000+ and I can tell you something for certain...it scoots right along while driving down the information super highway, and it doesn't even break a sweat when you compile 64-bit applications!
It's really nice to have a laptop that can run Solaris AMD64, and it sports genuine Ferrari red paint on it's case and even comes with a polishing cloth and a cloth cover!;-)
Fasten your seat belt with this laptop, because Solaris AMD64 really flies down the highway looking to solve tomorrows problems today.
( Dec 01 2004, 03:44:09 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [3]
GCC 3.4.3 with AMD64 support in Solaris
Yes, you read that correctly!
As of build 73 which is being put together as I type, Solaris 10 will now include a compiler. This is very exciting as this compiler does have AMD64 support in it, and will allow users to compile 64-bit applications on Solaris, "out of the box".
Sun will still be shipping the SunOne Studio, which is currently in Early Access for the next version which includes 64-bit also, so those that prefer the Forte/SunOne Studio tools will still be able to get them. Many of you know what a blessing it is to have dbx to debug your applications, since gdb can be pretty painful.
Both compilers will have the added advantage of being able to utilize DTrace (Dynamic Tracing) as DTrace is a part of the stock Solaris 10 system.
And for those that did not get a chance to stop by the Sun booth at the LISA Conference in Atlanta a couple weeks ago, Tom Erickson (a member of Solaris Engineering), wrote a front end in pure Java that adds a Java API and GUI on top of DTrace which allows most any user to start exploring DTrace capabilities in minutes! This front end really wow'd the attendees of the LISA Conference, and many people were able to not only see, but to take their first DTrace baby steps without writing a single line of dscript.
Solaris 10 is really making the life of a developer much nicer.
Oh, and don't miss the "Inside Jack" feature on sun.com for a lighter side look at development!
( Dec 01 2004, 02:58:37 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]