2007/6/29, Richard Lowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> 3.3) Familiarization
>
> FAM-1: Provide a set of packages in the default install
> and network repositories that users would typically
> expect to see with a similar UNIX operating system
> eg. GNU/Linux.
That's very vague, because it's so hard to gauge "What people expect", it
varies based on the value of "people". (the longer you've used something,
the more you come to expect precisely it, and nothing else, as I think
we've
all seen in prior arguments about indiana).
People would expect things like tab completion in the shell (and some
shortcuts like Ctrl+R), top, ps aux, vim, tar zxvf to work, they don't care
if they are GNU or not. I think that we should, at least, provide
information to the user, when usual Linux commands are typed, on how to get
the same information. For example, typing top, we could point them to the
equivalent tool in OpenSolaris, kind of the Google's "Did you mean" or the
new stuff in the ubuntu shell.
Personally, as a Linux user, I find the /usr/sfw /usr/gnu split really odd,
and it gets even worse when default PATH is not managed, I think that the
approach explained above would be less painful, let's try to provide the
same "interfaces" using our tools instead of installing duplicated tools,
and whenever a GNU tool provide a functionality that OpenSolaris lacks, we
just put it. But I think that one and only installation prefix helps people.
I would say that the current Unix path standards are hard enough to
understand to make it even more complex.
On the Zones side, well, the GNU Zone would only help "newcomers" if it is
the default zone, people won't realize what a Zone is or how they work
before they install OpenSolaris, so I don't see the usability gain in puting
a separate zone for GNU.
FAM-2: Provide an environment such that migrating (particularly
> GNU/Linux) users will be familiar with the utilities
> available, while preserving the binary compatibility
> story that people want and expect.
That's less vague, but there's a basic subset of features we lack that are
common to basically every Unix like operating system, other than us. (I'm
sure everyone has their own list of such things, and I'd bet they coincide
to a large degree too), search b.o.o for the modern_times keyword, there's
a
reasonable list right there (and at least a handful that should probably
have the keyword, but don't).
I would expect with those added, "familiarity" would be largely there
already.
In general, as I've said before in conversation with various people
(probably over and over again...), I think while users may think they want
a
copy of GNU frob, or whatever, what they actually want is the feature
(maybe with the same, or a largely similar interface, maybe not). I don't
think it makes sense to make drastic changes (or however many different
copies of the same basic utility) when minor feature addition would have
the
same result.
> With PSARC 2007/047 /usr/gnu, various GNU userspace utilities have been
included
> into /usr/gnu where there is already an existing Solaris utility. Is
this
> enough? Is a GNU branded zone what we want, or better still to add
functionality
> to the existing Solaris utilities in a compatible way that appeals to
90% of
> what's perceived as missing?
> I don't have many answers here - I'm pretty certain we're a lot closer
with the
> recent work that's been done. Is closer rather than better where we need
to be?
>
The goal here should be making things better, NOT "the same as $FOO", for
any value thereof.
There's many commonly missed things that (I'd hope and assume) were seen
as
beneficial. In general, better should be the target, closer is a nice
perk.
"Closer to $THING" should never be a goal in and of itself, you can be
very
similar to something awful, that would hardly be anything to brag about
though...
-- Rich
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--
Un saludo,
Alberto Ruiz
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