Vijay Tatkar's Blog

Installed OpenSolaris 2008.11 with Sun Studio Express 11/08
I just installed OpenSolaris 2008.11 (you can get it here, tho I got mine from an internal Sun DVD Test/Evaluation CD) on my x86 laptop in addition to another laptop that I use for shows (like Sun TechDays) and customer presos etc. To confess, my dual-boot laptop was still booting SXDE from Build 70 (its currently at 101 and the builds are biweekly, so I was about a year off :-)
The installation went smoothly. I didnt expect any issues since I know Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop has all the right characteristics and devices that OpenSolaris recognizes. Here are some of my observations that I would like to share here:

• The LiveCD install took 25 minutes (yes, I timed it). No issues (no partitioning required since I was reusing my older partition)
• Then I installed  other desirable packages, using the GUI Package Manager. This GUI now works better than it did in the previous OpenSolaris(2008.05) release. This took me another 25 minutes or so (that would depend on the speed of the internet connection for most folks, I suspect). I installed the following packages:
• amp-dev
• ss-dev
• netbeans
• gcc-dev
• hpc-dev
• webstackui
• openoffice

I now have everything I need: OpenOffice, Developer Tools (Sun Studio, NetBeans and GNU toolchain), AMP/Web tools, HPC tools (Clustertools). Went without a hitch and I'm happier now with the new look-and-feel and overall functionality. I also have the WR breaking Sun Studio Express 11/08 installed.  Later, I hope to blog about features as I try them out.
I've heard some good things about the new ZFS Time Slider; thats the first one to check out.

Posted by tatkar ( Dec 12 2008, 12:46:43 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]