| Taking OpenSolaris for a spin |
Jun. 11, 2007
If you're like most Linux users, you've heard of OpenSolaris, but I'm willing to bet you've never tried it. One reason, as former Debian co-founder and now Sun Chief Operating Platforms Officer Ian Murdock explained, is that OpenSolaris doesn't come as a packaged operating system like Linux does.
Murdock wants to change this.
In a recent blog entry, Murdock described the problem, "Like Linux, OpenSolaris is a kernel. Except that it's more than a kernel. Or, rather, more than a kernel but not quite a complete operating system. Are you confused yet?"
I'm not confused, but then I've been using Solaris since before there was an OpenSolaris. I first used Solaris in the 80s when its most immediate ancestor was called SunOS. He's quite right, though. If you're familiar with the world of Sun's SPARC hardware and SunOS/Solaris, dealing with OpenSolaris on Intel/AMD hardware is a cinch. If you're not, well, good-luck getting it up and running. You'll need it.
It's one of the reasons why I think OpenSolaris has been a non-starter in the free and open-source software world. Yes, yes, I know, it's wonderful. Yes, I know some people out there think it's much better than Linux.
You know what, though? Unless people can install your operating system, it doesn't matter how fabulous it is. They'll never run it, much less get to know its virtues.
If Murdock has his way, however, taking "Solaris for a spin," will become "as easy as, say, downloading the latest version of Ubuntu." His "goal is to create a binary distribution of OpenSolaris that simultaneously delivers what people have come to expect from 'Linux' alongside the great stuff that make Solaris unique."
Want to help Sun towards its goal? Murdock invites you to join the Indiana mailing list.
Let me encourage you to do so, too. While Linux is my operating system of choice, the better OpenSolaris gets, the better Linux will have to get to compete with it. By competing with each other in a fair and open environment, both operating systems will become better.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
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