Erwin's StarOffice Tango

"Solaris 10 - UNIX for the people?"
This guy apparently has not really tried to understand what the target audience of Solaris 10 is when he says:

"While Solaris 10 is surely a professional OS for insiders, I can't understand the hype SUN made about it. In many aspects Solaris is an OS from yesterday, from glory days where UNIX Workstations dominated a lot of markets. Those days have passed and the question is, why you should use Solaris instead of a modern operating system, especially if we're talking about the x86."

Yes, for people who are installing Solaris 10 in order to turn their PC into a UNIX-based gaming machine, or a all-you-can-eat-is-installed-at-once box will be disappointed. However, everybody interested in a rock solid administration or development workstation should evaluate new features like containers and DTrace. Although most Linux distros come with multiple different browsers, office applications, and games, most of them do not include the high-end enterprise tools.

However, I have to admit that the author is right regarding the installation process. The installation process definitely could be more user friendly. Also the default configuration of the Java Desktop System could be a little more targeted at or customized for administrators and developers.
( Mai 26 2005, 10:01:58 AM CEST ) Permalink Kommentare [4]

Kommentare:

Very true. However, it is also true that current Solaris/JDS have room for improvement on desktop front, for example, handling rich web content.

Only to get more indivisuals using Solaris as day-to-day environment, will other high-end features like DTrace and Zone gain momentum from developers in public domain (which currently has many linux centric projects.)

Gesendet von Ivan Wang am Mai 26, 2005 at 12:18 PM CEST #

Given its not Novell Desktop Linux, but hey...from where I stand i'm happy for it not to be. Solaris isn't meant to be all things to all people, it is a user friendly, logical, stable and scalable Unix. Well that's how I see it anyway. The screenshot in the article wasn't even Solaris 10 anyway (it was JDS2 not 3), I guess thats fairly indicative of how well researched this lame article was

Gesendet von Che am Mai 26, 2005 at 02:20 PM CEST #

It's a valid question: why bother with Solaris 10 x86 when Linux would suffice for a vast majority of people. Given the lack of drivers for Solaris 10 x86, Linux is just a better fit. Wouldn't it be great if Solaris 10 x86 had drivers for NForce 4, OpenGL support for ATI and NVidia's current set of graphics cards, sound cards, (boot from) SATA I and II, pci-express, etc? It just goes on and on. Also, Linux has far better support for 3rd party software. So the question still remains: why bother with Solaris 10 x86? Sun came in too late into this space. They squandered their huge lead with Solaris x86 when it first came out. In the end, Solaris, and probably Sun, will just be another blip in history just like DEC.

Gesendet von Anonymous am Mai 26, 2005 at 04:39 PM CEST #

I don't have problems with criticism, but I DO mind anonymous posts! Thus, to me, anonymous posts are not worth reading them.

I'm personally also a big fan of Linux (although many of my screenshots are on Windows to show that StarOffice and OpenOffice.org run there, too). However, I'm all in favor of open competition, and Solaris is just another well-trained sportsman entering the arena. Time will show, which operating systems are the best for the different audiences.

Erwin

Gesendet von Erwin Tenhumberg am Mai 26, 2005 at 04:51 PM CEST #