[osol-mktg] OpenSolaris/Solaris and Hardware Partnerships

[Patrick Finch]

Hi Kaiwai,

I think the biggest challenge you face in an activity like this is that 
people will always be very reluctant to certify to a code base. 
Statements of compatibility will almost always be made against specific 
binary distributions, rather than to source code.

Sara Dornsife has been looking into this in more detail, and has also 
been looking into an "ingredient button" style programme, (such as 
"Intel inside" or the use of Tux to represent Linux), but I don't think 
it is that straightforward, and at the moment, we only have what's 
called "fair use" of the OpenSolaris name (i.e. you can call your 
distribution "based on OpenSolaris").

If you can make any progress on these challenges, it will indeed be most 
valuable.

best regards

Patrick




Kaiwai Gardiner wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Given my limited programming skills, I thought it would be best to
> contribute in a way which I could add 'value'.
> 
> What I propose is a "works with", "OpenSolaris compatible" programme
> which is part information for customers, and part promotional spot/plug
> for hardware vendors who either explicitly support our hardware through
> providing drivers, implicitly by the provision of specifications or work
> 'out of the box' due to the nature of the device itself - for example,
> an mp3 player that uses UMS rather than a proprietary database like
> structure such as an iPod.
> 
> The benefits will be two fold; firstly, customers who wish to run
> OpenSolaris will have a list of hardware which they can choose from
> which is compatible 'out of the box' - ranging from chipsets to mp3
> players.
> 
> The benefit to hardware vendors will be that they will have a visible
> presence in the OpenSolaris 'community' communication board as a form of
> marketing; making their hardware more desirable over others,and thus
> push up sales of those companies willing to help/support the OpenSolaris
> community.
> 
> I'm in the process of working out a programme, and will most a much more
> detailed out line of it; but I thought it would be best to give a 'heads
> up' and whether the 'OpenSolaris' community as a whole are willing to
> get behind this programme as part of the over all marketing push.
> 
> Awaiting replies and input,
> 
> Kaiwai Gardiner
> 
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