James Gosling: on the Java Road
Sunday June 01, 2008
Opensolaris 2008.05
I
just installed
OpenSolaris 2008.05
from the OpenSolaris.com site. It's pretty sweet.
They've had the installer nailed for quite a while, the big thing in this release (for me,
anyway) is that it installs ZFS on the root device, and sets the system up to boot from
ZFS. No more disk partioning! One big happy pool-o-pages! No more UFS!
(but I'm *still* waiting for power management)
Permalink
Comments [4]
Post a Comment:
Comments are closed for this entry.
I also miss power management a lot, since my disk spins down serveral times a minute which is really disturbing. But all in all it's an incredible OS. I've been using Linux for over a decade but as soon as disk apm is working i will switch.
Posted by Björn on June 01, 2008 at 02:58 PM PDT #
There seems to be a problem when you log in and out a few times. It gets slower and slower, or doesn't work until you reboot. I've installed OpenSolaris 2008 05 three times on my Sun Ultra 24 because after a week or two I get a completely blank screen and a mouse pointer when logging in. Uninstalling compiz didn't help and it was completely useless. I've sent a few messages to the mailing lists and they think there's a problem with the 2008 05 release.
For now I've re-installed Ubuntu 8.04. OpenSolaris has come a long way and I'm really looking forward to trying the next release. Below are some notes about things I feel are missing compared to Ubuntu:
* tons of packages with software I want such as nano, filezilla, mp3 codecs, etc.
* When I try to use features that require a missing package (such as playing an MP3, sharing a folder as SMB, etc) Ubuntu tells me which package I need and lets me install them with one click.
* The Printer Manager is much nicer and setting up a Xerox with CUPS driver was a breeze. I can even change printer settings from a print dialog within my applications instead of having to use a web app like in Solaris (sunfreeware.com CUPS).
* The mscorefonts package is great for use with OpenOffice.
* The Ubuntu Updates Manager makes it clear that there are new updates to install and helps me install them. Is there such a thing in OpenSolairs? I haven't read much about IPS yet.
* The GUI package manager in OpenSolaris feels slow because it refreshes as I type letters. I find Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu feels more responsive.
Posted by Ryan de Laplante on June 01, 2008 at 06:05 PM PDT #
Yes, OpenSolaris 2008.05 looks very pretty. But for Desktop use, it suffers from the same fate as GNU/Linux or FreeBSD: None of the commercial desktop applications that I use every day exist for it, and there are no usable substitutes. So it is basically another nice OS for doing some geek stuff and hacking, but for my needs as a user, I have to boot OS X.
Posted by Winfried Maus on June 03, 2008 at 01:49 PM PDT #
Well, it's nice but kind of slow. Another problem (typical for Sun) is that there're not so many (if any) designers involved in the development of Solaris thus the system doesn't feel so good.
The problem with missing apps could be solved by developing them in Java by the community ;)
I'd leave out the mp3 codecs from the wish list to stay really opened (I don't know if there's some other stuff in Solaris that should not be there because of wrong license and is there already)
Would be nice to have some package manager, but not exactly like the one in Ubuntu. I hate Ubuntu because all those repository policies and huge dependency on internet connection. Ubuntu is dead without internet.
Posted by goddard on June 06, 2008 at 01:56 AM PDT #