Jim Laurent's Weblog

Recently, IBM announced the feature set of its upcoming AIX version 6, and I can tell you that Sun and the Solaris engineering team are extremely flattered that IBM has finally conceded that Sun has the jump on them when it comes to advanced technology.  According to their product preview AIX 6 will feature:

• Workload partitions, a software virtualization technology
• Sun introduced these as Solaris 10 Containers in 2005 with resource management, security containment, and we continue to enhance them with each update of Solaris 10.
• A wide variety of customers already have Solaris 10 containers in production and have found that they allow flexibility and consolidation in the data centers.
• Solaris 10 containers are supported on all platforms (Sparc, AMD, Intel) whether from Sun or third parties (including IBM's Blade Center)
  
• Solaris 10 containers are the basis for our Trusted Extenstions providing multi-level security.
• I'm not sure why they decided to build their own rather than taking the code for Containers from the OpenSolaris site.
  
• Role Based Access Control
• Introduced by Sun in 2000 with the release of Solaris 8 (yes, 7 years ago)
  
• The basis for our completed Common Criteria evaluations which have included the RBACPP in Solaris 9 and 10.
• Integrated with our auditing, identity and process privilege model
• Trusted AIX
• Trusted versions of Solaris have been available for almost 15 years.
• Solaris 10 with Trusted Extensions has been available since December 2006 and is currently under CC evaluation for the Labeled Security Protection Profile.
• Trusted Extensions have been open sourced including our multi-level contributions to X.org and Gnome.
  
• Secure by Default
• Introduced in Solaris 10 12/06, this allows you to install Solaris 10 with all network services turned off except for SSH.
• Dynamic Tracing
• This facility, known as DTrace, was introduced with Solaris 10 in March of 2005.
• It is an award winning tool from Sun that can provide complete visibility into the operation of kernel or user application behavior and performance
• Has already been extended by Sun and third parties to include Java, Postgres and Ruby on Rails support.
• Was the first component of Solaris to be open sourced.
• Has been picked up by Apple for MacOS as well as the BSD community for inclusion in their products.
• Binary Compatibility
• An area in which Sun excels, we have been offering guaranteed binary compatibility since the Solaris 7 days.
• Extends to both our Sparc as well as our X86 product lines (IBM doesn't have this option because AIX doesn't run  on X86 architectures.)
  
• I did NOT see the word guarantee at the AIX web site.  What do they do if your application does NOT run?
  
• Open Beta Program
• Sun introduced the Solaris Express program well before the initial release of Solaris 10 to allow customers to get their hands on code and provide feedback directly to developers.
• Sun's "Developer Edition" is specifically targeted at developers with X86 based PCs to give them early exposure to Sun's new technology and source code.
• Solaris Express DOES NOT require our partners, customers and developers to own expensive proprietary hardware.
• Based upon the mid 2007 start point of this program, we do not expect AIX 6 to be available until 2008 giving Solaris 10 fully a three year lead on AIX 6.
  

In addition to those direct comparisons, I feel honor bound to point out:

• IBM did NOT announced open sourcing of any of their AIX code.  I could be wrong, but I don't believe that they have the rights to open source AIX.
  
• AIX 6 does NOT support the volume leading platforms in the market today (OpenSparc based, Intel, AMD) thereby forcing developers to use their expensive proprietary hardware.
• According to the IBM store, the least expensive P-series servers is $3400.  This is not exactly within the budget of most developers.  IBM's least expensive workstation is $6000.
• Sun's AMD workstations start at $900 and our Sparc workstations start at $2900.  Of course, you don't have to choose one of ours. You can get a Dell, Sony, Acer or white box to start your Solaris 10 development now.
  
• Solaris 10 provides a consistent user interface and source compatibility between the Sparc and X86 platforms.
  
• I didn't see any mention of free downloads for AIX
  
• Solaris outsells AIX and HP-UX combined
• More volume leads to more ISV support, third party hardware and community support
  

In summary, thank you, IBM, for validating Sun's technology leadership and distribution model.  You are still a little bit short and we are at least 3 years ahead.

Why should you care?

If you truly need an enterprise OS that you can download for free, run on your laptop and participate in an open source community, Solaris 10 is your only choice.