[advocacy-discuss] The OpenSolaris "Attitude"

[Jim Grisanzio]

S h i v wrote:
> On 9/22/07, Jim Grisanzio <Jim.Grisanzio at sun.com> wrote:
>>> Hmmm.... I think what I think that it should end up with something like
>>> "You don't have to play with Penguins anymore, OpenSolaris is here."
>> Ok, so this is the competitive angle here. :)
>>
>> I've been trying to down play this for four years (actually longer than
>> that)
> 
> I have liked your blogs/mails for that :)

Thanks. I appreciate that. :) I'm not sure they are very popular among 
most, though. Also, I don't mind natural competition (professional, 
civil, etc) as long as it doesn't degenerate and get hostile.

>> because it gets really nasty and I end up losing sleep. :) Also,
>> various Open Source folks have told me over the years that to be
>> competitive with Linux simply will not work and it's bad for community.
>>
> 
> The flame part is the attitude inherited from Solaris. 

 From inside Sun or outside Sun? I actually think the Sun engineers have 
not been the flamers for the most part. I find the flamers are coming 
from outside Sun and are the least substantive of the entire community. 
I've also run out of patience with them. They ought to be called for 
what they are. Overall, however, considering the large amount of 
traffic, we've done a really good job in this regard. Also, what's 
really cool, is that the community is not longer reacting negatively so 
much to news about OpenSolaris. That's really excellent.

> It is not
> something that has naturally emerged in OpenSolaris.
> I see some flames from linux kernel side but not from the
> linux_distros side of the community (leave the linux based corporates
> out). It has been localised to a small subset of LKML members.
> 
> On the other hand I see *some* from OpenSolaris flaming Linux kernel
> or more often the linux distros :(

This is interesting. I don't know very much about the LKML other than I 
accidentally spammed it the day we launched! :) They were pretty kind to 
me, though, since it was an error. That's my claim to fame with them, 
though.

> OpenSolaris(distros) directly or indirectly benefits from the work
> done for distros like debian/ubuntu/gentoo/fedora.
> There is lot more space for co-operation than competition at distro
> level. But unfortunately the current widely used OpenSolaris distro SX
> has lot more of the Solaris attitude for obvious reasons.
> 
>> One thing a good competition brings is focus. And that brings people
>> together. And from that, leadership and a cultural attitude can clearly
>> emerge.
>>
> 
> More true for corporate driven setups than community driven
> ones...Competition as a motivational factor is likely to take a lesser
> prio.

Well, we surely are a corporate driven community initially, but we also 
have things that are pure community based, too, such as the OGB. I still 
think the community has underestimated itself in many ways, and that's 
what I'm trying to get after. We've done way more than we realize. So, 
what *is* a motivational factor for the community?

Jim
-- 
http://blogs.sun.com/jimgris