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?
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?
The original qt license wasn't to the liking of some distros, notably RedHat who initially went with CDE which is about the worst thing you can call a desktop, so I swiftly switched back to KDE. With the change of license, they still kept their distance largely. Sun doesn't want Linux within a million miles of any platform that can loosely be called a server. They were one of the first to join Linux International thinking Linux was interesting, but they took fright at how swiftly the SPARC Linux development progressed. The last position I saw them take was that you could run Linux on SPARC, but you won't get any support from Sun, they didn't specify whether that included no hardware support. I successfully built a mailserver on an E3500 for our company. I also have a sleeping Ultra 5 under the desk here at home that I very occasionally wake up to check stuff on Solaris, the company asked me not to install Linux on it in case they needed it back. Our guys who use Linux have moans when they have to deal with Solaris, ksh is still the default - I'd rather type it all out than use "ksh -o vi", but you can use bash from Solaris 8 - I know you can get a free bash for Solaris 7, probably a sacking offence in most shops , there is no recursive grep (painful), no locate or any of the nice stuff Linux offers. I can't blame Sun, they have a very heavy investment in Solaris and Linux threatens it (it has wiped Sun off the map in some prestige accounts) and so they do only what they are forced by the market to do vis-a-vis Linux, Linux on AMD and Intel, but not the hallowed SPARC. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Linux Only Shop.