[osol-mktg] reference distribution

[Alan Coopersmith]

For nvidia, it shouldn't be hard to script a wget http://www.nvidia.com/...
to grab the driver.

	-Alan Coopersmith-           alan.coopersmith at sun.com
	 Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering

Stephen Lau wrote:
> If the OpenSolaris community can negotiate a way with NVidia/ATI/whoever 
> to eventually provide a way to easily obtain the driver, that would be 
> great.
> 
> But yeah, I don't see a problem with shipping/using the default cruddy 
> drivers just to get the free redistribution.
> 
> -steve
> 
> Patrick Finch wrote:
>> Agree that highly restricted device support doesn't win many converts, 
>> but one approach I've seen is that Ubuntu installs a (pretty terrible) 
>> open driver for my ATI graphics card and helps me download and install 
>> a better performing, closed one if I choose to.  This is also probably 
>> related to how they keep their install image down to one CD.
>>
>> Would this be a smart approach for an OpenSolaris reference distro?
>>
>>
>> Patrick
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Tim Foster wrote:
>>> Hey Patrick, Steve & co.
>>>
>>> [ mostly thinking out loud here ]
>>>
>>> On Tue, 2007-04-24 at 11:33 +0200, Patrick Finch wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>>  > At the same time, we'd continue moving the production of (what was
>>>>  > called) Solaris Express out into the open. Wouldn't that achieve the
>>>>  > same thing ?
>>>
>>>> presumably Sun Microsystems will want to reserve the option of 
>>>> including some closed components in its distribution of OpenSolaris, 
>>>> no?
>>>
>>> That makes sense alright, I agree.
>>>
>>> Do any of the existing distributions do what's being suggested ?
>>> [ a freely distributable reference distribution of OpenSolaris ]
>>>
>>> Schillix being the closest to Solaris would seem like a candidate,
>>> though it hasn't been updated in a while.
>>>
>>> Belenix has a wow-factor that's pretty cool, and fits on one CD, but
>>> doesn't ship the JDS consolidation.
>>>
>>> Nexenta is more aimed at GNU/Linux userland fans. Martux is sparc-only
>>> (isn't it?) and so cuts out a large portion of the install-base.
>>>
>>> So - we'd be left with needing to create a new distribution for this,
>>> possibly with worse hardware support than Solaris Express ? (unless
>>> there exists open source equivalents for every closed source driver
>>> shipping in Express ?)
>>>
>>>
>>> Given an open source reference edition of OpenSolaris, then it'd loose,
>>> say Nvidia 3d support & whatever closed-source wifi/ethernet drivers are
>>> out there, fluendo mp3 support.. Speaking for myself, that'd make such a
>>> distribution less attractive for my (fictional) laptop.
>>>
>>> On the other hand, perhaps I'm not the target market.
>>>
>>> Is a reference distribution aimed at developers of new distributions,
>>> that is, is it intended to be used as a base for building new
>>> distributions from ?
>>>
>>> Or is it aimed at developers of open source drivers/components for
>>> OpenSolaris who don't like the restrictions of running closed-binaries
>>> that ship in Express?  If it isn't as good as Solaris Express, then
>>> what, other than it's unencumbered-status would be the attraction of it
>>> for a casual end-user ?
>>>
>>> [ sorry for all the questions - I'm thinking about the answers as well,
>>> lest you think I'm just trying to shoot down everyone's ideas ;-) ]
>>>
>>>     cheers,
>>>             tim
>>>
>>>> Tim Foster wrote:
>>>>> Hey All,
>>>>>
>>>>>  - here goes!
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, 2007-04-23 at 11:07 -0700, Stephen Lau wrote:
>>>>>> Question...
>>>>>> if a community-driven reference/base distribution of OpenSolaris 
>>>>>> were created with only the open sourced components
>>>>> Ok, why ?
>>>>>
>>>>>> I think this could considerably help the evangelism (advocacy, 
>>>>>> whatever the accepted PC word of the day is) of OpenSolaris.
>>>>> So replace "Solaris Express" with "OpenSolaris Reference", and 
>>>>> continue
>>>>> down our path of gradually replacing the closed portions of Solaris 
>>>>> with
>>>>> the (presumably newly written) open components and you're on to a
>>>>> winner.
>>>>>
>>>>> At the same time, we'd continue moving the production of (what was
>>>>> called) Solaris Express out into the open. Wouldn't that achieve the
>>>>> same thing ?
>>>>>
>>>>>  [ and leave Solaris Express Developer edition where it is, with
>>>>>    support, etc. as before ]
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I guess I'm thinking that building a community reference edition would
>>>>> be a bit of a duplication of effort, given that there's already a 
>>>>> group
>>>>> of people paid to do release engineering, program management, etc. of
>>>>> something that includes the OpenSolaris source base. Now, it's not 
>>>>> fully
>>>>> open source, but as I understand it, that's something that Sun are
>>>>> trying to fix.
>>>>>
>>>>> If the problem we're trying to solve is that Solaris Express isn't
>>>>> freely distributable, then can't we just[1] make it freely 
>>>>> distributable
>>>>> and re-brand it as $foo ?
>>>>>
>>>>>> Bonus points if we could make it fit onto 1 install CD media.
>>>>> 6 CDs for Solaris Express is pretty bad I admit.
>>>>>
>>>>>     cheers,
>>>>>             tim
>>>>>
>>>>> [1] Yeah, I know - the same way most coding problems are /just/ a 
>>>>> simple
>>>>> matter of programming
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