Wednesday February 22, 2006
Wednesday February 22, 2006
I'd written to some colleagues at Sun about this, and Alan suggested I write a blog entry. What a good idea, since I've been so delinquent about blogging.
So, here I am flying over Greenland and writing a blog. Not storing it away for submission after I land, but actually on the live website and posting it immediately, thanks to Lufthansa and Boeing (and I suppose I have to put in a plug for Airbus as well, since they built the plane - talk about strange bedfellows!).
Many other people have written about this, including Jonathan and some folks at Apple. The service has been running on some routes for a while. What makes my experience different, though, is that I'm using IPsec to tunnel into Sun's network, and writing this using Solaris. There probably aren't too many other people who've done that.
Evidence of that would be the fact that Lufthansa's on-line survey not only doesn't list Solaris as one of the possible operating system choices, it doesn't even have an "other" category. Not being willing to claim Solaris was either Linux or MacOS (there wasn't a generic UNIX category, either), I had to answer "I don't know" and put in a comment later on.
So, Lufthansa and Boeing: I know you're Sun customers. How about fixing this?
And speaking of fixing things, the Solaris IPsec technology I'm using is called "punchin." Unfortunately it's not available to the general public yet, but we're using it inside Sun for VPN connections on Solaris since our friends at Cisco haven't been willing to support their VPN solution on Solaris for x64. So, Cisco, how about you? 2.6 million Solaris on x86/x64 systems can't be wrong.
So, here I am flying over Greenland and writing a blog. Not storing it away for submission after I land, but actually on the live website and posting it immediately, thanks to Lufthansa and Boeing (and I suppose I have to put in a plug for Airbus as well, since they built the plane - talk about strange bedfellows!).
Many other people have written about this, including Jonathan and some folks at Apple. The service has been running on some routes for a while. What makes my experience different, though, is that I'm using IPsec to tunnel into Sun's network, and writing this using Solaris. There probably aren't too many other people who've done that.
Evidence of that would be the fact that Lufthansa's on-line survey not only doesn't list Solaris as one of the possible operating system choices, it doesn't even have an "other" category. Not being willing to claim Solaris was either Linux or MacOS (there wasn't a generic UNIX category, either), I had to answer "I don't know" and put in a comment later on.
So, Lufthansa and Boeing: I know you're Sun customers. How about fixing this?
And speaking of fixing things, the Solaris IPsec technology I'm using is called "punchin." Unfortunately it's not available to the general public yet, but we're using it inside Sun for VPN connections on Solaris since our friends at Cisco haven't been willing to support their VPN solution on Solaris for x64. So, Cisco, how about you? 2.6 million Solaris on x86/x64 systems can't be wrong.
Tuesday June 14, 2005 Well, after all, you never know on a day like this how things are going to go. So far, so good, though. OpenSolaris is still up and running and open for business! Go there to get this
and other cool OpenSolaris stuff.
Even the nice folks on slashdot are saying mostly good things about us.
Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris
It's Alive
Today's release of the OpenSolaris source code culminates years of effort. Everyone always asks why it took so long. It's simple, really: Solaris is big, and has been in development for more than 20 years. Going back and finding the provenance of every line of code in Solaris was, to put it mildly, hard. Whenever we found code that belonged to someone else we either had to get their approval to release it as open source (assuming they still existed and we could find them), find an alternative, rewrite it, or decide to release it as binary only. When you see the size of the OpenSolaris source you'll understand how massive an effort this was. I hope you'll be as grateful to the Solaris engineers as I am for doing this tedious but very necessary work.
Once we had the code figured out, we had to provide a way to build it. This meant putting tools, documentation, websites, and so forth together. It wasn't just a matter of using the same toolset we use internally to bulid Solaris, because OpenSolaris will require a combination of source and binary files to build. So the build tools must allow people to do that. And there was the question of compilers. There was a big internal debate between gcc and the Sun Studio tools. In the end we decided to support both, hoping to accomodate as many developers as possible.
Let's not forget the licensing question, either. Although we resolved this some months ago with the release of the CDDL, it took us a long time to get to that point. Lots of people were involved, from engineers to lawyers to executives. As you might imagine, with something this big and this important, we had to get approval from Sun's board of directors. All of this took time to work through, but the dedication and commitment of the CDDL team made it happen in the end.
In some ways it's hard to believe that we're finally here. I certainly wasn't an original proponent of open sourcing Solaris. I was constantly asking, "What's the business case? What are we trying to accomplish?" Over time the answer became clear: extend the reach of Solaris. Build a broad, strong community. Make it easy for people to get access to an enterprise-class open source operating system. And, yes, lead people to Sun's portfolio of systems, software and services. We're not going to be bashful about the fact that Sun is in business to make a profit. We hope and expect that OpenSolaris will generate opportunity for all members of the OpenSolaris community.
I'm incredibly proud of the OpenSolaris team for delivering on something many people thought impossible. If you're one of those, all I have to say is, take a look at the code. See for yourself if you think we delivered on our commitment. Either way, please let us know. We'll do everything we can to respond to your comments and concerns.
That's all I have to say today, because I want you to spend your time communing with the engineers - the real stars of the show. Still, if there's something you think I can help you with, as always feel free to drop me a line.
Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris
Technorati Tag: Solaris
Thursday June 02, 2005 We continue to make great progress in providing wider device support for Solaris on x86/x64. The latest example is the availability of accelerated 3D NVIDIA graphics drivers.
You can find them on the NVIDIA website. We'll get them rolled into a Solaris 10 update as soon as we can. Obviously these drivers work only with NVIDIA graphics chips, which are the ones used in Sun's workstations. These drivers are officially supported on the Quadro series of devices, although we've heard that many people have had success using them with GeForce chipsets as well.
If like me you'd like to see accelerated drivers on other chipsets (such as the ATI chips used in my Acer Ferrari laptop), please drop the vendors a line.
In the meantime, a big thanks to the team at Sun and NVIDIA who made this happen!
Technorati Tag: Solaris
You can find them on the NVIDIA website. We'll get them rolled into a Solaris 10 update as soon as we can. Obviously these drivers work only with NVIDIA graphics chips, which are the ones used in Sun's workstations. These drivers are officially supported on the Quadro series of devices, although we've heard that many people have had success using them with GeForce chipsets as well.
If like me you'd like to see accelerated drivers on other chipsets (such as the ATI chips used in my Acer Ferrari laptop), please drop the vendors a line.
In the meantime, a big thanks to the team at Sun and NVIDIA who made this happen!
Technorati Tag: Solaris
Saturday April 02, 2005 Last week, I was asked by Forsythe, a Sun iForce partner, to present on Solaris 10 for some mutual customers. Sounds like a normal, boring business trip, right? And since I was supposed to be on vacation this week, I wasn't inclined to go. Until I found out that the presentation would be done at the inaugural Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (Florida)! My son Ben the car nut and I packed up and flew to Florida on Thursday. Unfortunately he's on spring break and has to be back at school on Monday, so we couldn't stay for the actual race on Sunday. But we did get to see practice and qualifying on Friday. Forsythe is a sponsor of two of the cars on the Andretti-Green racing team: Bryan Herta (#7) and Dario Franchitti (#27). Forsythe had a great suite right above the finish line where we could get a fantastic view not only of the main straightaway but of large portions of the track. Thursday night before the meeting we got to meet Bryan and Dario, had our pictures taken with them and got autographs. Today, Bryan won the pole! How cool is it that Ben has an autographed picture of the pole-sitter? The only cooler thing would be if Bryan or Dario won the race. Well, except for getting pit passes and having our pictures taken with both Michael and Mario Andretti.
Ben and me with Michael Andretti.
Ben and me with Mario Andretti.
I guess we must be good luck: Michael's son Marco won the pole for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series Grand Prix that's being held along with the IRL race and an SCCA race.
[Update: Marco won the race! Dario and Bryan finished third and fourth, part of an Andretti-Green racing team sweep of the top four spots.]
So what does this have to do with Solaris 10, you ask? How about having Forsythe banners all around the track, including near the finish line and on a bridge over the track? You know, like the Firestone or Michelin banners you normally see at races? And guess what they're advertising? That's right: Solaris 10. All over the track. At a car race.
Bryan Herta's car is in front of the banner. Dario Franchitti's car is on the monitor. How's that for timing?
Operating systems don't matter? Solaris doesn't have a community (we're past a million Solaris 10 licenses, you know)? We're quickly obliterating so many of the preconceived notions about Solaris. Watch us run. Just like the Indy cars this week, we're fast, we're precise, and we're making a lot of noise!
Technorati Tag: Solaris
Ben and me with Michael Andretti.
Ben and me with Mario Andretti.
I guess we must be good luck: Michael's son Marco won the pole for the Menards Infiniti Pro Series Grand Prix that's being held along with the IRL race and an SCCA race.
[Update: Marco won the race! Dario and Bryan finished third and fourth, part of an Andretti-Green racing team sweep of the top four spots.]
So what does this have to do with Solaris 10, you ask? How about having Forsythe banners all around the track, including near the finish line and on a bridge over the track? You know, like the Firestone or Michelin banners you normally see at races? And guess what they're advertising? That's right: Solaris 10. All over the track. At a car race.
Bryan Herta's car is in front of the banner. Dario Franchitti's car is on the monitor. How's that for timing?
Operating systems don't matter? Solaris doesn't have a community (we're past a million Solaris 10 licenses, you know)? We're quickly obliterating so many of the preconceived notions about Solaris. Watch us run. Just like the Indy cars this week, we're fast, we're precise, and we're making a lot of noise!
Technorati Tag: Solaris
Wednesday January 26, 2005 By now you probably know we've officially launched OpenSolaris. Maybe you've looked at our website, opensolaris.org. Maybe you've downloaded the DTrace code we released yesterday. Or perhaps you've come to my blog from the website. If so, welcome to the OpenSolaris community! We've tried really hard to make OpenSolaris as open as we possibly can. We're incredibly enthusiastic about the OSI-approved CDDL license, what it enables members of the community to do, and the intellectual property protection it provides to community members large and small. My team is working feverishly to get the Solaris source ready for general release as buildable source in the second quarter of this year. The minute it's ready we'll make it available, and when we do, look out! There's no telling where this may lead.
So, stay tuned, take a look at the website and follow the blogs, and join the community behind the most advanced operating system on the planet!
So, stay tuned, take a look at the website and follow the blogs, and join the community behind the most advanced operating system on the planet!
Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris
Technorati Tag: Solaris
Friday October 08, 2004
Yes, I'm now the proud owner of a bright red Ferrari. And what they say is true - it turns heads wherever I go. When I walk into the room with it, everyone gathers round to gawk, marvel over the paint job, ask how I like it - and how much it cost.
What's that? You're confused about me walking with my Ferrari into a room? Oh, you thought I was talking about a car. No, sorry - it's a laptop. An Acer Ferrari 3200 laptop, to be precise. It really is Ferrari red. I love it. It costs about two orders of magnitude less than the car.
Okay, big deal. Aside from the color and the logo, what's so cool about that? It's running Solaris 10, 64-bit, that's what!
Coming soon to a Solaris Express release near you.
I love my job :-)
Update to Ferrari support status, 22 December 2004
64-bit support is available in the 11/04 release of Solaris Express.
The Ethernet driver was integrated into Solaris 10 subsequent to that and will be included in the 01/05 release of Solaris Express. Of course the driver will be available in Solaris 10 when it is formally released as well.
I'm not sure about the audio driver. I'll have to check on that. If it isn't integrated yet it will be formally available in the first update of Solaris 10, and we'll try to make it available in a patch as soon as possible.
Things that definitely aren't there yet, unfortunately, are wireless support (call Broadcom and tell them to give us the specs!) and Bluetooth support (the warning messages you see during boot are related to Bluetooth). Official power management support won't be available until the second update of Solaris 10. We do have some internal hacks, though, and I'll see if we can't make those available to the community on an as-is basis. Same goes for scrolling and button support for the touchpad.
Full accelerated frame buffer support will have to wait until ATI joins NVIDIA in providing Solaris drivers. (We recently received the first Alpha drop from NVIDIA and it looks pretty darn cool! Accelerated NVIDIA drivers will be available for download in the Solaris 10 GA timeframe.) In the meantime the Xorg drivers work fine, albeit not with all the bells and whistles.
Finally, you'll probably start to see some nifty toys for Ferraris appear soon, as we've outfitted all 55 of Sun's "OS Ambassadors" with Ferrari 3400s, and they love to tinker!
If you have additional questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line.
What's that? You're confused about me walking with my Ferrari into a room? Oh, you thought I was talking about a car. No, sorry - it's a laptop. An Acer Ferrari 3200 laptop, to be precise. It really is Ferrari red. I love it. It costs about two orders of magnitude less than the car.
Okay, big deal. Aside from the color and the logo, what's so cool about that? It's running Solaris 10, 64-bit, that's what!
Coming soon to a Solaris Express release near you.
I love my job :-)
Update to Ferrari support status, 22 December 2004
64-bit support is available in the 11/04 release of Solaris Express.
The Ethernet driver was integrated into Solaris 10 subsequent to that and will be included in the 01/05 release of Solaris Express. Of course the driver will be available in Solaris 10 when it is formally released as well.
I'm not sure about the audio driver. I'll have to check on that. If it isn't integrated yet it will be formally available in the first update of Solaris 10, and we'll try to make it available in a patch as soon as possible.
Things that definitely aren't there yet, unfortunately, are wireless support (call Broadcom and tell them to give us the specs!) and Bluetooth support (the warning messages you see during boot are related to Bluetooth). Official power management support won't be available until the second update of Solaris 10. We do have some internal hacks, though, and I'll see if we can't make those available to the community on an as-is basis. Same goes for scrolling and button support for the touchpad.
Full accelerated frame buffer support will have to wait until ATI joins NVIDIA in providing Solaris drivers. (We recently received the first Alpha drop from NVIDIA and it looks pretty darn cool! Accelerated NVIDIA drivers will be available for download in the Solaris 10 GA timeframe.) In the meantime the Xorg drivers work fine, albeit not with all the bells and whistles.
Finally, you'll probably start to see some nifty toys for Ferraris appear soon, as we've outfitted all 55 of Sun's "OS Ambassadors" with Ferrari 3400s, and they love to tinker!
If you have additional questions or comments, feel free to drop me a line.
Tuesday September 14, 2004 Today is the Sun Open Source Summit. Over 200 Sun engineers (including a whole bunch of Solaris developers) getting together with each other and a host of outside community members to talk about open source software. Despite this, and everything else we've done both recently and over the years, there are not just unbelievers but apparently genuine cynics out there. People who don't believe that we could possibly "really" open source Solaris, and that if we do there will be some catch, some incredibly evil ulterior motive we must be hiding. It just blows me away that people think this. They obviously don't understand Sun or how Sun works. Worse for me, they clearly have no idea of who the people at Sun are. I couldn't hold my engineers back even if I wanted to, and I certainly don't want to.
Bottom line: we are going to open source Solaris. Really. My engineering team believes in this. Really. We are about to start our pilot program. Really. (Sorry, it's full.) Are we done? Not yet. Can we tell you more? Not yet. But it will happen.
You can believe it, or not.
Bottom line: we are going to open source Solaris. Really. My engineering team believes in this. Really. We are about to start our pilot program. Really. (Sorry, it's full.) Are we done? Not yet. Can we tell you more? Not yet. But it will happen.
You can believe it, or not.
Technorati Tag: OpenSolaris
Technorati Tag: Solaris