[advocacy-discuss] "What is OpenSolaris" page

[Sean Sprague]

Hello Moinak, hope that you are well.

>   Since you are long-time Solaris users familiar with it's nuances, 
> how long
>   does it take you to flip your PATH so that /usr/bin is in the front 
> ? How
>   long will it take an OpenSolaris n00b to figure out it's nuances and 
> update
>   the PATH settings so that he can use the familiar GNU tools ? Would he
>   even care to do such a change if the operating env feels weird and 
> unfamiliar
>   right from the start ?

Well here we find the crux of the "problem" (if it exists). OpenSolaris 
is trying very hard to be a "get it, burn it, boot it" (GIBIBI (tm)) 
operating environment. What we have not really addressed is the 
necessity to *learn* something about UNIX (and *not* GNU; bcoz...) 
whilst they are experiencing OpenSolaris. This is key; and 
irreplaceable. If you learn UNIX (an interface thereto) and its 
utilities, then you can make a choice as to whether to move on to 
utility sets like those provided by GNU. Only in that way can you 
achieve a good grounding in "UNIX". If you start with using the 
GNU-style interface to utilities, then you are "lost" in terms of 
backwards-compatible understanding.

Regards... Sean.