The monthly OpenDS Community
call happened today. It was a great call with insight into the upcoming inclusion of OpenDS in OpenSolaris. OpenDS can be installed on OpenSolaris
today but what is new is that it will be available in the new
OpenSolaris application repository. I have blogged before on the
importance of user experience in software. This is especially important
for infrastructure sotware as it increases adoption, reduces training
and maintenance costs and most importantly is "the right thing to do"
when building product. 
The
inclusion of OpenDS in the OpenSolaris repository will improve the
overall user experience of acquiring and using the software on this
important platform for developers and enterprises. Additionally, the
team talked about the latest release and inclusion of the new console.
In addition to all of the above, I came across the following review by CS Connell who was comparing OpenDS to several other LDAP directory solutions. Although his analysis is not comprehensive, the blog post does a nice job of illustrating his analysis of several different solutions against his business and technical requirements. Here are some of the highlights:
"From an install standpoint, OpenDS seemed quite a bit easier to me, even though I had never seen it before."
"However, one feature that I very much liked (and we need) from OpenDS was virtual attributes, specifically isMemberOf. "
"In the end though, I just felt OpenDS was easier, and would certainly be more straightforward for someone without much backround in the technology .. and it had the nifty isMemberOf attribute we wanted"
He also posts some initial performance testing results. Although, I can't confirm or properly comment on his results I will leave conclusions up to you. We will be posting some testing results of our own on OpenDS shortly to give you some additional information.
