[indiana-discuss] "Where do I download OpenSolaris" Ian Murdock
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Fri Sep 5 11:23:10 PDT 2008
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Hi, I saw Ian's blog entry while hunting for a Nevada download link and appreciated the invitation to make my wishes known for Solaris in order to make it a more approachable "distro" for Linux, etc. users. <div>
<br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I've been using *nix since '95 in various flavors. I've been particularly fond of FreeBSD and Debian, however I really found great pleasure upon switching to Mac OS X
4.5 years ago. I now use it primarily for all of my workstation and some server work. Lately, I've been wanting to start using Solaris to make use of some older machines that I have lying around so that I could create some "on-the-cheap" ZFS Netatalk servers (ie, I want to keep forks and funky filenames in tact in such a way that is impossible with smb and nfs). I started digging around in Solaris and found it to be exactly as Ian alluded to, not very approachable in terms of instantly knowing the fs hierarchy, how to get gnu ls, compile packages like netatalk in a "friendly" way, etc. etc. I felt like I was jumping back to Linux circa '98 and fbsd around the same time when the ports system was being heavily developed.
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>We need a few things in Solaris:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>First, Fink does a great job for Mac OS X and that could perhaps be a good model to follow in getting a ports system available for us. This includes quickly getting gnu shell tools, such as `ls`, `cp`, etc. in place rapidly. We need better instructions and or a more robust build system that is placed right in our faces (I don't know, perhaps one already exists, but let us know about it immediately so we're not scratching our heads).
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Second, put Xen in the front row. We need to see that we can pop a Windows or other installation right in at the onset of installation (well, I mean immediately following installation). Give us a nice gui like that which exists for ZFS and take folks by the hand so that we know that a VMware/Parallels like solution is right there waiting for us to utilize.
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Third, give us zfs config and installation by default. I know that things are a work in progress right now, but it is definitely the biggest sales asset of solaris at the moment in my and many folks' eyes as we're tired of living with current filesystems and inherent issues.
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I would also add some polish to the installer. It needs a bit of work; and particularly in general I don't like slices and partitions. Give us an entirely gui method in and out of installation that doesn't throw up things about the blocks not being utilized entirely or % error (obviously I'm not looking at the installation atm, but those really irritate me when I have to tweak by block so I don't feel like I'm wasting space on my drives).
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Things also *seem* slow when you get into X. I don't know why, but it just seems generally slower than XF86 or Xorg on an ubuntu distro, gentoo, etc. It makes it feel like the kernel is at fault, but I can't bring myself to quite believe that as I see such high reviews.
</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I'll probably come back with many more suggestions if I find some time to install Nevada again and try to get netatalk going.</div>
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