Myth: "Linux is less costly for web infrastructure than Solaris" BUSTED: Open and Tuned
This is the same old story we've been hearing for years. We like you but "You're just too expensive!". Come on - that is old news. You've already learned that we are not proprietary and now you'll learn why we are cost effective too. I'll give you a hint - it has something to do with not being proprietary! 
Web infrastructure is our bread and butter. Sure, we still do the high end stuff for applications that need it but Web 2.0 is where it's at and we've got the most cost effective solutions for you! Let's start with your basic Linux vs. Solaris discussion and then get into Web Infrastructure.
Example #1: It's not just about acquisition. A study by Crimson Consulting Group highlights why Solaris is actually more cost effective then Linux. When doing a cost analysis, you must compare all costs including acquisition, support, implementation and administration. Solaris comes out ahead and this paper isn't even looking at OpenSolaris!
Example #2: SWaP it!. Ok, ok, so you might think that the above study was sponsored by Sun and may be slightly biased. Maybe. But, here's one by Paul Murphy, a unix author, on his own blog site. Oh, and did we forget to mention the SWaP metric above. Yes, aside from all the hard costs listed in the study, SWaP (Space, Watts and Power) was left off. Paul explains why this impacts the cost of Solaris (for the better!) and that's on Sparc.
Example #3: OpenSolaris. Speaking of OpenSolaris, here's a quick article that talks about why OpenSolaris has a leg over Linux...
Example #4: Solaris x86 - right in the mix. Speaking of Linux and x86 platforms, Solaris is right there in the mix. You might think we are the old pricey OS company but we're not. We just price competitive with your other choices. Linux, Windows, etc...
Example #5: Stuff from Sun Ok, I must include a few links from Sun because I really want to impress upon that once you've accepted that the costs can be the same or lower than Linux, you must also include the benefits of using Solaris over Linux for your web infrastructure. It is our hope that that will help tip the scale towards Sun.
- Sun for Web Infrastructure talks about why use Solaris 10 for your web infrastructure.
- SAMPand More SAMP This Webstack includes Apache, MySQL and PHP (among other tools) for OpenSolaris. Check it out!
- By the way, did you know we just acquired MySQL for a whopping $1B! See deal and product details at Sun's MySQL Acquisition.
- Lastly, Sun is committed to helping startups get off the ground with highly discounting pricing and free stuff. Sun Startup Essentials offers deep discounts on hardware, storage and hosting, as well as free software and services!
I hope that this gives you a good unbiased sampling of why Solaris is less costly than Linux for Web Infrastructures! Enjoy!!
-Robin
But Solaris is not opensource. It just uses stuff from OpenSolaris, but that doesn't make it less proprietary.
Posted by 202.95.86.146 on May 01, 2008 at 11:21 PM EDT #
Thanks Anonymous for your comment. While Solaris does use stuff from OpenSolaris, the initial codebase of OpenSolaris was largely Solaris itself. Please allow me to clarify.
"Sun open sourced millions of lines of source code under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) in June 2005. Although Sun was not able to open all of the code which ships in the Solaris 10 Operating System, the code for all the key Solaris innovations such as Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), Containers, Predictive Self Healing, and ZFS was opened. OpenSolaris is a single source base for SPARC and x86/x64. It is buildable with both Sun Studio C/C++ compilers and with the GNU compilers."
Therefore, OpenSolaris is actually a derivative of Solaris. While there are still some components of Solaris that could not be open-sourced due to license restrictions, etc... the majority of Solaris is included as open source in OpenSolaris. So, yes, while the remaining few pieces of Solaris that are not opensourced could be considered proprietary, the majority of functionality is available in OpenSolaris.
"Solaris 10 is the current version of Sun's tested, certified and supported enterprise operating system, available free for download. Future versions of the Solaris operating system will be based on technology from OpenSolaris." This means that source that is contributed by the community to OpenSolaris can be incorporated back into enterprise Solaris after testing and certification. The sharing of code between Sun and the community is therefore bi-directional.
Hope this helps.
-Robin
http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/opensolaris.jsp
Posted by Robin on May 02, 2008 at 12:49 PM EDT #
I have been a loyal Linux user for years, but I intend to give opensolaris a try. I used to work with Sun Spark as a db manager. Always like it. I think its worth a try.
Posted by Mike Smart on May 06, 2008 at 07:42 PM EDT #