[indiana-discuss] what i'd like to see

[Gary Gendel]

Robert Gstoehl wrote:
> Good morning,
> 
> My 2 cents in terrible broken english or what I like about linux, debian
> in particular:
> 
> Stable, Testing, Unstable, -Branches: Depending on the environment I can
> go bleeding edge with lots of bling or choose stable with longer release
> cycles.

Branching is good. However, I'd like to have consistent cycles and goals for the
stable branch. I have a long wish list of things I've been waiting for, mostly
missing drivers. Most of the time, my requests for expected release dates are
met with either no response, "we're working on it", or "soon". Unfortunately,
more times than not "soon" ends up to be over a year. I understand the
situation, so I take it in stride, but it has ruffled many feathers of people
that can't get OpenSolaris running on the current generation hardware.

> Package Management: Every bit in the distro can be managed with apt-get
> & co. No difference between kernel, modules and userspace. Installing a
> new kernel needs just an apt-get install, keeping a server up to date:
> apt-get update && apt-get upgrade, installing a desktop environment:
> apt-get install gnome | kde | whatever...

I don't care what package management is chosen as long as it works. Too many
times in Linux I get an "update" that fails because of one reason or another.

> Supported Hardware:
> Good laptop and power management (suspend, hibernation, ..) support is a
> must if you want people to deploy solaris on laptops and workstations
> and not just expensive, big and loud sun fires..

See my notes above. People are doing the best they can, but OpenSolaris has a
long way to catch up to Linux to make it competitive in this arena. That said,
things like nwam, etc. are worth the wait. I like that they have released it in
phases so we can get something to play with rather than wait for a finished product.

> 
> Bling:
> I don't want to offend anyone but: A solaris 10 gnome desktop looks
> grotesque. The gnome theme looks clumsy, the java cup in the top right
> corner of a mozilla hurts my eyes. The same with the solaris installer
> and lot's of other "artwork" coming from sun.  The first impression
> matters.

I disagree, but that's what the basic point is. I'd rather let the user decide
what to use rather than force something down their throats. The
Ubuntu/Kubunto/Xubunto path is something we should analyze.

> People love Compiz / Beryl & co.
> 
> Otherwise keep the good work up and don't fear the penguin,

Live CDs that allow someone to play would be nice. I haven't seen Compiz in
action, but I really don't want to do anything that would make a system require
more resources to run. This would be a very bad thing. The latest releases of
SXCE are already taxing my reasonably good laptop. I think that's one of the
reasons that Vista is getting such a cool reception.

Gary