Steven T. Hatton wrote:
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On Friday 12 March 2004 07:28 am, Sid Boyce wrote:
Steven T. Hatton wrote:
Sun? I don't think sun are out to get linux. I sure use a lot of sun freeware for Linux every day.
Yes, but! Sun would love to see Linux marginalised or disappear so that Solaris could come back into its own. They have always displayed an ambivalent attitude towards Linux and do only as much as they deem necessary while they think out a strategy.
The only advantage I can see for their desire to hold onto Solaris is because they perceive it, rightly or wrongly, as a leverage for selling their hardware. If they thought they could put their boxes out on the shelf and put a label that said 'Insert Linux here' on the CD bay, they'd do it.
Why not? They could certainly do that. The largest Sun server I've installed Linux on is an E3500, but others have done so on E10K's going back years.
I've never had a chance to give Linux a head to head with Solaris on a sparc. Solaris does have a decent track record. Their reasons for not supporting Linux may simply be pragmatic. The economics may not support the cost of keeping a well trained Linux support staff.
This is what they have to say on their web page: http://wwws.sun.com/software/linux/
Anyone who knows Linux finds Solaris easy-ish as it's an annoying system to admin if you've worked with Linux beforehand and lacks quite a number of nice touches that Linux has, "find / -name xxx -print" is a pretty poor substitute for "locate" and I know many admins who shun bash, prefering to use "ksh -o vi" and using vi commands to edit a command line, YEUK!. I've been using Unix for the last 23 years and find vi a necessary evil, so I use the bare minimum functions edit files. Anyone who knows Solaris finds Linux very easy. Some time after doing a Sun networking class, I was looking at my notes and wondering, then I used them to set up NIS on my home Linux boxes. Linux taught me much about Solaris and Solaris taught me much about Linux also. I use skills gained on one to good effect on the other, but Linux is by far less onerous to admin. A Sun box that runs Solaris like a race in treacle, flies under Linux.
I would have no quarrel with Groklaw on their analysis, it's based on Sun's public utterances.
People talk, corporations issue statements. sun is a big company with thousands of employees to quote.
Sun Microsystems has given a lot to me personally through open source software. And other than a few twits here and there, have always been very pleasant to do business with. They are not like that other company. I don't believe it's in the best interest of Linux to put them on the defensive.
I agree with you, but I'd say to Sun, come in, the Linux water is fine. I know there are people at Sun who wanted to opensource Solaris and also to wholly embrace Linux and others prepared to go down fighting it. One of our customers with an E10K, E6500 and other Sun equipment we maintain, is moving to Linux (RedHat ES) and Oracle 9i on Intel later this year, HP made the sale, Sun is OUT-of-there. As an aside, I've read many interviews where Scott McNealy rubbished IBM's "ancient" mainframe technology and I was prompted to reply asking the interviewer why he didn't ask him to explain further. The Sun gear is back where the mainframe was in the early 1980's, give me an E10K to install or fix and I know I'm working on old technology, give me a Z900 and I know I'm working on modern hardware, especially the new Z990's, boy, this a slick box, pity I'm retiring before I'll have the pleasure, though I know I could handle one without training. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer Linux Only Shop.