Mittwoch Februar 13, 2008

OpenSolaris and Windows on my Mac
I just played a bit with VitualBox on my Mac. The software is developer's and tester's heaven in the sense that it allows you to run all kinds of operating systems on the same machine. Here is a picture showing how I run the latest preview of OpenSolaris and Windows XP on my MacBook Pro:



Now I can easily take screenshots for collateral on different operating systems. Cool!
( Feb 13 2008, 06:45:29 PM CET ) Permalink

Donnerstag November 01, 2007

OpenSolaris Developer Preview now available
A first preview release of an OpenSolaris binary distribution has been released. I haven't tried it myself yet, but the feature and improvements list sounds very interesting. Details can be found here.
( Nov 01 2007, 07:46:10 AM CET ) Permalink

Samstag März 31, 2007

Solaris porting guide for developers available
I was always wondering why we did not have a guide explaining developers how to port applications to Solaris. I just found that we actually have one now. The 54-page white paper can be found here or here. I'll probably give the document a try myself sometime soon.
( Mrz 31 2007, 08:17:43 AM CEST ) Permalink

Donnerstag März 22, 2007

Debian creator joins Sun
"Sun named Ian Murdock as its chief operating platforms officer, the executive who oversees marketing strategies for Sun's home-brewed Solaris operating system as well as the more widely distributed Linux operating system, company spokeswoman Jacki DeCoster on Wednesday.
...
Murdock said Sun needs to make Solaris easier to install on computers, to encourage software developers to get on board. "I'll be advocating that Solaris needs to close the usability gap with Linux to be competitive," he said in an entry on his personal blog. He also said that he plans to stay close to his Linux roots. "Even with Solaris front and center, I'm pretty strongly of the opinion that Linux needs to play a clearer role in (Sun's) platform strategy," he said on the blog."

The full article can be found here.
( Mrz 22 2007, 05:21:03 PM CET ) Permalink

Montag März 05, 2007

Free OpenSolaris Starter Kit
I recently installed the latest Solaris build on my laptop. I have to admit that the installation and configuration process was not as smooth as with Ubuntu, which I'm using on a few of my systems at home, but now I really love my Solaris system. It's really stable and fast. If you want to try Solaris as well, you can get yourself a copy of the free OpenSolaris Starter Kits.
( Mrz 05 2007, 11:29:09 AM CET ) Permalink

Freitag März 02, 2007

Learning more about operating systems
I just was made aware of this cool website. Universities should be able to use a lot of the content for their curricula. I'm wondering if we should create something similar for OpenOffice.org as well!?
( Mrz 02 2007, 12:23:07 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Dienstag Februar 20, 2007

More details about broadband wireless under Solaris

In order to get my UMTS 3G broadband wireless card to run under Solaris (Nevada build 56), I used the information from two resources, this one and this one. There is one more article which originally helped me to get my UTMS card running on Ubuntu, but I can't find that article anymore.

The PCMCIA card that I'm using is a Option Wireless Technology (Qualcomm 3G CDMA, GT 3G Quad). I installed the usbsacm cardbus driver as explained in the OpenSolaris article. However, the driver binding looks a bit different for my card. Based on the information that prtconf provided I had to add the following line to /etc/driver_aliases:

usbsacm "usbaf0,6300"

Instead of /dev/evdo I named my device /dev/umts. That is also the name of the device I put into the setpin script that is explained in the Ubuntu article already mentioned above. The script is needed to set the pin for the wireless card. Otherwise it will not work.

Then I created the scripts for the PPP daemon. I more or less used a mixture from both articles and some knowledge that I have from a third article which I currently can't find anymore:

# cat /etc/ppp/umts-chat
ABORT BUSY ABORT 'NO CARRIER' ABORT VOICE ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' ABORT 'NO DIAL TONE' ABORT 'NO ANSWER' ABORT DELAYED
'' ATZ
OK-AT-OK "ATDT*99#"
CONNECT \d\c

# cat /etc/ppp/peers/umts
hide-password
noauth
connect "/usr/bin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/umts-chat"
debug
/dev/umts
460800
defaultroute
usepeerdns
noipdefault
user "t-mobile"
remotename umts
ipparam umts

I think it does not matter what you put in /etc/ppp/pap-secrets. As recommended in the OpenSolaris article, I installed the inetmenu tool and enabled its use for my user account via "Administration - Users and Groups - myusername - Properties". The inetmenu tool made switching between different networks very easy.

I first had some problems, because I could see in /var/adm/messages that I got a local and a remote IP address as well as IP addresses for the nameservers, but dumb me, I first forgot to copy the files /etc/ppp/resolv.conf to /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/nsswitch.dns to /etc/nsswitch.conf. The inetmenu tool takes care of that in a nice and comfortable way.

Montag Februar 19, 2007

Being online with my Solaris laptop at 100 mph
I'm currently sitting in a train from Hamburg (Germany) to Kiel (Germany) at about 100 mph. I just got my UMTS 3G broadband wireless card to work with Solaris. Thus I can work online using Solaris during my daily commute between Hamburg and Kiel. Really cool!!!

The configuration was a bit tricky, but now it performs much better than on Windows. My provider is T-Mobile. Thus, if you want to do the same, but don't know how, let me know!
( Feb 19 2007, 07:22:58 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Freitag Dezember 08, 2006

Cool: OpenSolaris on a Stick
Wow! This is really cool! OpenSolaris now runs from a memory stick. Check this out.
( Dez 08 2006, 02:10:24 PM CET ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Mittwoch August 17, 2005

Interesting Solaris 10 feedback
I don't like the headline of this article (because I think of competition in the sense of a sports event, not war), but I think the feedback is very interesting anyway:

"DTrace can reveal a tremendous amount of data about the system and applications, yet it can be fine tuned to provide information relevant only to the particular processes one wishes to examine, putting it well beyond anything available for Linux, such as Kprobes, Dprobes, or DTT. Currently, DTrace is a command-line tool, although there is talk of creating a GUI front end.

Solaris containers (aka 'zones') are also noteworthy. They're virtual environments a bit like BSD jails, only slicker. Each container looks and feels like an isolated, virtual instance of the kernel, yet when idle, one container will use about 0.5 per cent of system resources, and fifty idle containers use about five per cent."
( Aug 17 2005, 11:21:19 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]

Dienstag August 16, 2005

OpenSolaris is "kool"
I just became aware of the following interesting LinuxWorld report:

"They were blown away. Then things would come back to cost... they knew that the Sun TCO was lower than RHEL, but they couldn't convince their powers-that-be... so I'd put a Solaris DVD in their hand and tell them that they were free to run it in production, no strings, no BS, call us when you'd like a support contract. At that point some of them almost started crying. It was great. I talked to one guy that had RHEL deployeed, couldn't tolerate the reliablity problems they were having, and were paying more than $22,000 for support... and that didn't include priority phone support, just access to the Red Hat Network. I talked to a gentleman at Siemen's who was desprate to stay with Sun and really left ready to fight. I had almost two dozen people like this."

The full report can be found here.
( Aug 16 2005, 08:37:30 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Freitag Juni 24, 2005

Solaris strong at LinuxTag 2005
I'm currently doing booth duty at the LinuxTag 2005 event in Karlsruhe, Germany. I'm surprised and amazed to see how strong the interest in Solaris is!!! We are quickly running out of our Solaris DVD kits and Solaris t-shirts! Everybody seems to be very open to Solaris and many people are anxious to play with DTrace and the container technology. I have the feeling that most people used Solaris in the past, played with Linux for a while and are now excited about the new features in Solaris 10 as well as the fact that Solaris has been open sourced as OpenSolaris. I guess we (Sun) should add some kind of "reviewers guide" to the DVD kit, so that users who are new to Solaris can quickly get started with the cool stuff like DTrace and containers.
( Jun 24 2005, 09:24:51 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Montag Juni 20, 2005

"First OpenSolaris derivative in the wild"
"Dubbed 'SchilliX' after its principal developer, veteran German open source programmer Jorg Schilling, the operating system has been in development for four months with the approval of Sun Microsystems. [...] SchilliX allows users to try out OpenSolaris for themselves without installing it to their hard disk, as it can be run directly from a CD-ROM. However, it can also be installed onto a hard disk or a sizeable USB storage device."
The full article can be found here.
( Jun 20 2005, 04:26:20 PM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Freitag Juni 17, 2005

The ServerWatch on OpenSolaris
"The Fedora-feeding-the-enterprise model didn't quite work as Red Hat envisioned it, but it lacked one vital piece of the puzzle that Sun already has in place. Sun is selling a full system stack, unlike Red Hat, whose business model hinges on selling support. In other words, Sun hopes that giving away the appetizer will lead to the customer sticking around for the meal."
The full article can be found here.
( Jun 17 2005, 11:23:30 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [0]

Mittwoch Juni 15, 2005

The pregnancy is over
The pregnancy is finally over! A new baby is born! And look how cute it is! ;-)

Yes, I'm talking about OpenSolaris. My wife would most likely kill me if I was talking about my baby, because she for sure knows that she herself has not been pregnant over the last few months.

Today, on June 14, the OpenSolaris project came to real life. Now that it's out in the beautiful but tough world, it will have to face many challenges. However, I'm convinced that the pilot project members together with the Sun engineers will help this baby grow up. Soon it will learn to crawl, then to walk and eventually run.

I'm also convinced that the OpenSolaris parents will have to deal with difficult decisions in the future. Once the OpenSolaris project becomes a teenager, it will want to be treated like a grown up, and not like the little kid it used to be.

Sun has learned a lot from all the different open source projects that it is involved in. I myself am working on the OpenOffice.org project. Yes, in the past, Sun has made many small and big mistakes regarding OpenOffice.org. The same happens within a family where people say or do things that they do not really mean.

Nevertheless, I'm convinced that all of "Sun's" open source projects will converge towards something great and successful. Yes, most definitely there will be more arguments, misunderstandings, fights, and tears. However, in the end, we all will be one happy family.

I at least welcome my little brother (sister?) in the larger open source family! I'm proud to be a relative of this little guy! Happy birthday!
( Jun 15 2005, 08:06:12 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [1]