[advocacy-discuss] Corporate Open Source

[Kamal K. Varma]

>>> And, after Indiana/OpenSolaris ships next month - then what? My 
>>> production systems are running Solaris. How will they benefit 
>>> from OpenSolaris? What's the roadmap? Will there be patches to 
>>> S10? Or some Solaris Next? Solaris 10 is getting old, and I feel 
>>> the pressure to upgrade it. To what? I often read comments from
>>> Sun engineers advising to go to SXCR or Indiana/OpenSolaris. If
>>> I've got to put *my* job on the frontline, I'll got for something
>>> more reasonable, like RHEL, thank you.
>> 
>> Sorry, my friend. You are a little out of my league on the various 
>> products and versions and such. :) Smarter people than I would have
>> to offer come context here.
> 
> Well, I'd say «more knowledgeable» rather than «smarter». But yes, I 
> need to hear from them. Because the complete lack of an upgrade plan 
> to OpenSolaris, even coming from Solaris, is quite an issue. And of 
> course, where is the support? Will I be able to give money to Sun, 
> and then call them and get answers?

I'll pretend to be more knowledgeable (hard to trump Jim even on that 
really):

The latest and fifth Solaris 10 update, Solaris 10 5/08, just became 
generally available (i.e. media kits started shipping worldwide) on 
4/28/08. It has been available for download 4/15 onwards.

Per the Solaris OS life cycle model (sun.com/solaris/lifecycle.xml), 
updates to milestone releases (e.g. Solaris 10) happen while it is 
generally available. Then, in its Retirement Phase 1, patches are still 
made available though no more updates (roll up of patches, enhancements, 
new features, etc.) are planned.  People get advance notice and details 
of upcoming new milestone releases in multiple ways - the early access 
(e.g. beta) programs, newsletters, via their account team, etc.

Kamal