On Fri, 2003-12-05 at 06:13, Pacheco Jason NPRI wrote:
While the betas do have some small annoyances, I think it is a big step in the right direction.
Small annoyances? I'm sorry, but I think that is an drastic understatement. I am a big fan of Sun and have been so for a long time. However, I have to admit that I think they could have done a much better job with this product. I am primarily a Gnome user, but the JDS is marketed as a "Desktop System" and we must all admit that KDE is definitely going for that desktop environment to pick up where Windows leaves off.
So how does sun explain completely omitting KDE and even its libraries in the JDS? Right off the bat they are cutting out a good 50% of the applications available for the platform. I think this is a ridiculous move. The least they could have done was include the libraries. Why would they do that?
As far as I can tell, that was a marketing decision. I have been a KDE user since I started with Linux, and I have fed back to the team that KDE seems to be the dominant Windows-replacement desktop. They won't be swayed much by my little opinion; they will be swayed by market pressure(paying customers) asking for those capabilities. It is important to note that the JDS is not intended to be a competing distro to RedHat, Mandrake, etc -- it is intended to provide a "managed desktop environment" for coporations to deploy in place of Winbloze. Do I agree with that strategy? No. Am I happy with what all is in the kit today? No. But the only way that will change is if the paying customers tell Sun loud and clear that it isn't good enough. If you are an "influencer" where you work, and your corporation uses Sun product, tell them what you expect in a Linux environment, and tell them that JDS is not it. They have no interest in the "home" user market, and as such feedback from individuals has less impact.
And as for Sid's question, maybe you could shed some light:
"so where's Linux/SPARC on Sun's roadmap"
Where is it? Linux compiles fine on SPARC architecture, so I don't see why they wouldn't include it. But in checking the site I can't find any information on specific architectures. Am I correct in assuming that the lack of architecture-specific information means that JDS will run on all Linux-able archs?
There are no indications that Sun will ever support any OS except Solaris on SPARC. Although Linux runs on SPARC, there is no current effort to support it officially that I am aware of. -- Powered by SuSE Linux Pro 8.2/Evolution 1.4.5 This is a Microsoft-free computer