[advocacy-discuss] How about NOT giving any one distro the exclusive name "OpenSolaris" (was Re: Indiana as the OpenSolaris xxxx distro )

[Brandorr]

On 10/22/07, Shawn Walker <swalker at opensolaris.org> wrote:
> On 22/10/2007, John Plocher <John.Plocher at sun.com> wrote:
> > Martin Bochnig wrote:
> > > But if Sun feels they need to release "the one" OpenSolaris distro
> > > called "OpenSolaris", while disallowing others to use that name, how is
> >
> >
> > Sara and Ian in particular,
> >
> > It would help promote a less-confrontational community dialog if we
> > could agree (for now, at least) to NOT try and give *ANY* distro the
> > exclusive rights to call itself "OpenSolaris (singular, period)".
> >
> > With an extended and growing family of related technologies, distros,
> > recipes and repositories coming out of our OpenSolaris Community, it
> > seems to be in everyone's best interest to create a branding strategy
> > that makes room for many different OpenSolaris-Things, held together
> > by compatibility and a common respect for each other.
> >
> > There are many current and potential "OpenSolaris" things:
> >
> >     A set of shared resources and recipes:
> >
> >         The Official OpenSolaris Package Repository
> >         The OpenSolaris Test Farm
> >         The OpenSolaris Community websites
> >         The Definitive OpenSolaris Compatibility Definition
> >         The Definitive OpenSolaris Desktop Definition
> >
> >     a potential /set/ of reference distros:
> >
> >         The Prototype OpenSolaris X86 Laptop Distro (nee Indiana)
> >         The OpenSolaris Laptop Distro
> >         The OpenSolaris Laptop Distro with KDE instead of GNOME :-)
> >         The OpenSolaris Desktop Distro with both KDE and GNOME
> >         The OpenSolaris Webstack Distro
> >         The OpenSolaris Backoffice Distro
> >         The OpenSolaris Cluster Distro
> >
> >     and, if it turns out that we can't work /together/ to make a
> >     set of common things, there is still the opportunity to go
> >     and create an affiliated thing:
> >
> >         Schillix, based on OpenSolaris with schilly tools added
> >         Nextenta, Debian packages on an OpenSolaris base
> >         The Nexenta Repository of Debian packages for OpenSolaris
> >         Belinix,  Based on OpenSolaris, with a great masala sauce on top
> >         Bejingix, based on OpenSolaris, ÔÚ±±¾©Ëù×÷
> >         Solaris11, based on OpenSolaris
> >         Jericho, based on OpenSolaris
> >         Indiana, based on OpenSolaris
>
> Unfortunately John, I can't agree with that.
>
> The problem is that users already have the expectation that clicking
> the "Download" button on OpenSolaris.org will let them download
> "OpenSolaris."

They can today (From http://www.opensolaris.org/os/downloads/ ):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using OpenSolaris

If you want to run a distribution based on OpenSolaris, choose one of
these available options:

Solaris Express Community Edition ¨C DVD: Download | CD: Download

    Solaris Express Community Edition is Sun's binary release for
OpenSolaris developers (code named "Nevada"). It is built from the
latest OpenSolaris source and additional technology that has not been
published in the OpenSolaris source base. This release is unsupported.
Developers can build the OpenSolaris source by using this release as
the base system. It is updated every other Friday.

Solaris Express Developer Edition - Download | More Info

    Solaris Express Developer Edition is Sun's tested release built
from the OpenSolaris bits and additional technology that has not been
published in the OpenSolaris source base. For additional details,
including support options, see the Developer Edition site. There is no
charge for this release. The Developer Edition is released every three
to four months and replaces the Solaris Express monthly release.

BeleniX ¨C Download | More Info

    BeleniX is a *NIX distribution that is built using the OpenSolaris
source base. It is currently a LiveCD distribution but is intended to
grow into a complete distro that can be installed to hard disk.

marTux ¨C Download | More Info

    marTux is the first non-Solaris Express/Solaris Express Community
Release OpenSolaris distribution for SPARC (sun4u for now, sun4v
later).

NexentaOS ¨C Download | More Info

    NexentaOS is a complete GNU-based free and open source operating
system built on top of the OpenSolaris kernel and runtime. NexentaOS
integrates OpenSolaris (SunOS kernel) and Open Source Software (OSS)
applications  a foundation that combines the best of both worlds.

SchilliX ¨C Download | More Info

    SchilliX is an OpenSolaris based UNIX Live CD and distribution for
the x86, x64 and EM64T architectures. The current release is based on
Nevada Build 17 and higher.

> I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation either.
>
> I also don't think that *more* choices or making lots of choices
> prominent on the download page is a good thing either.
>
> Every time there is a new SXDE/SXCE release, and the news gets posted
> to somewhere like OSNews, there are always a handful of comments from
> folks confused by the number of download choices, the differences
> between them, and why they can't download something that's called
> "OpenSolaris."
>
> User education is not the answer here; meeting user expectations is.
>
> Despite our best efforts over the last few years it has become clear
> that users have made their choice about what they expect.
>
> --
> Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst
> binarycrusader at gmail.com - http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/
>
> "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
> tried it. " --Donald Knuth
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>


-- 
- Brian Gupta

http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nycosug/