>>> Solaris is
>>> by far the most interesting target platform for Etoile IMHO. So it's
>>> definitely worth supporting this platform.
>>
>> I'd be interested to hear in more detail about why you feel like this.
>
> At the kernel level, Solaris has:
>
> - ZFS (so does FreeBSD, although the Solaris version is a bit better
> tested)
>
> - DTrace (we don't use this much yet, but it is possibly the most
> shiny thing ever invented for debugging and I want to integrate it
> with LanguageKit at some point).
>
> - Probably the best threading implementation of any Free *NIX at the
> moment (including kernel scalability).
>
> - Full and tested support for things like SCTP in the network stack,
> which will probably be very useful for CoreObject.
>
> - Zones - think FreeBSD jails only more so (although FreeBSD 8 jails
> can now do most of what Zones can).
>
> - A full, complete, and working OSS 4 implementation. FreeBSD
> supports most of OSS 4, Linux is completely worthless when it comes to
> sound, with every release of every distro having a new, broken, and
> incompatible way of doing it. If it has drivers for your hardware,
> OpenSolaris will give better
>
> In the userland, there is a modern init system, based on a similar
> model to Launchd. There is also a huge pile of legacy crap designed
> to run code from anything from SunOS 1.0 onwards. Hopefully Solaris
> 11 will move a load of this into legacy-compat zones where it
> belongs. The new package manager is also shiny.
>
> I generally prefer a more BSD-style userland, but Solaris is
> definitely high up the list of operating systems I'd recommend people
> consider. If you read some of the early mailing list discussions, we
> were considering making OpenSolaris our standard platform when we put
> together a demo Étoilé system.
>
> I'd definitely welcome more extensive testing on Solaris, but at the
> moment we only get regular testing on platforms that the developers
> use, which generally means Ubuntu, Fedora, or FreeBSD.
There is more than that. Solaris 10 is the home of SSRS (Sun Ray Server
Software) and SSGD (Sun Secure Global Desktop), two very important
legacy packages. All our servers in the field run Solaris (RDBMS, NFS,
NIS, postfix,...). On the client side we have either Macs (MacOSX) or
Sun Rays. A Sun Ray is an Ultra Thin Client (no fan, no disk, no noise,
no heat), actually a graphics card with a network connector, a key
board and a mouse. If you log into a Sun Ray you start a session on the
server, the Sun Ray simply displays the buffer (rendered on the
server). Imagine a usual Sun machine (64GB RAM, 16 x 146GB ZFS, 8
processor cores) and about 30-40 Sun Rays connected to it serving
GNUstep/Etoile sessions. Actually that's exactly what we do. The Sun
Rays do not need to be in the LAN. The Sun Rays can also be used in a
WAN.
Sun Ray -- DSL-Router --- {Internet} --- Sun Server (Solaris 10 with
SRSS installed)
Now, imagine you have one of those at home. You pull your smart card
from your home ray, drive to your office and insert your smart card
into any Sun Ray there. There's your session again with the cursor
still blinking at the same position in your word process or
presentation software where you left it (at home). This is the well
know card trick, that already convinced a lot of customers. :-) A Sun
Ray costs 250 EUR - 300 EUR (10 EUR on Ebay) and is absolutely
maintenance free (stateless). You might want to purchase a bigger
server every 3-5 years but you don't have to touch the desktops (Sun
Rays). They can easily do their job for 10 or more years. With SRSS
V5.0 there will also be a Sun Ray soft client emulating a Sun Ray on a
Windows Desktop (could be handy in some cases).
Then there is Sun Secure Global Desktop which is just another beast
that allows you to bring a Solaris/GNUstep/Etoile (of course GNOME as
well) based desktop onto any computer (e.g. a Windows machine) without
the need to install any software on the client.
OK, we are getting off-topic here. But please check out
hhttp://www.sun.com, get a copy of Solaris 10 and Sun Ray Server
Software (for free) and see for yourself.
Regards,
Andreas
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