> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of 
> Frank van der Linden
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 4:04 AM
> 
> The second problem comes when you hand them a DVD to try it 
> out, or if 
> you sit down with them to install it. The installer doesn't 
> look good. 
> Some hardware may not be supported. It's an embarassing experience 
> trying to install Solaris sometimes, especially when e.g. 
> Ubuntu "Just 
> Worked".

*This* is the number one problem above all else at this point.  (Less the "look 
good" part and more the "just works" part.)

I am one of those linux developers that wanted to use solaris because of the 
list of cool technologies -- zfs, dtrace, etc.  Problem is that each of the 
three times I tried to install (last was b59), some important device was not 
supported, or did not work correctly on the hardware I had on hand.  And I mean 
things like network and sata controllers built-in to the vanilla motherboards 
on my personal systems.  Having a greater variety of common hardware that 
people have purchased over the last year or so is the number one problem with 
getting people to try it out.

The second major barrier, to me at least, is the integration of the Xen work 
into nevada.  If this was present I could easily see it as worth the trouble to 
either invest in new hardware or press through the driver issues in order to 
get open solaris running on my systems.  Reason is that I could also have a 
linux image running as a xen user domain, and be able to continue to do my "day 
job", while still having open solaris as the reliable base.

In other words, having Xen "just work" on open solaris for popular linux 
distros (e.g. ubuntu, centos/RHEL, debian) would avoid me having to make it an 
all-or-nothing adoption choice.  I need (because of time limitations) to be 
able to "learn to appreciate" the open solaris experience gradually, while 
still being able to get my real work done.

The third major barrier has already been discussed -- network based package 
management.  I don't personally care if it is apt, the current stuff, or some 
completely new stuff.  I just want to be able to install the things I use that 
are not on the base distribution, such as emacs.  I know that I can install the 
blastwave base and then have that, but: 1) it is an extra step that I have to 
discover; and 2) things go into *another* path that I have to manage in my env. 
 After I install, I need to be able to "install emacs; emacs &" and have that 
just work.


--

paul
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