> > Also Waynel, did you ever get the USB stick > install > > to work in 2008.11 or does it still only work in > > 2008.05? Maybe 2008.11 needs a bigger USB stick? > > I was using 8GB USB stick, thus, size should not be a > problem in either case. > > I have given up on the though of booting os0811 from > USB flash stick (it was a little jerky even when it > worked). > > However, I have found booting OpenSolaris from a USB > HD may provide a great option. You can get a 250 GB > USB HD for about $50 ~ $60. To take full advantage > of zfs, you really need a large hard disk. You can > actually run a mirror with a pair of USB hard discs. > Nothing will emboss a stronger impression of > OpenSolaris than doing a demo like this. > > Nowadays, most laptops come with at least 3 GB of > DDR2 RAM. I don't know about older laptops, but on > these laptops, I don't notice any difference between > running OpenSolaris from a USB HD and from internal > HD. Intuitively, I think this may be because the way > zfs is designed to take full advantage of the extra > RAM. Another big plus for OpenSolaris. > > Face it, I don't think anyone will be crazy enough to > be willing to install OpenSolaris (or any other OS) > over the Windows on their new PC (most likely a > laptop). Resizing Windows is not something you can > talk anyone into doing, either. Thus, our best hope > of enticing the general public to try OpenSolaris may > be to install it on an external USB hard disc. The > OpenSolaris LiveCD makes this process painless and, > from my own experience, prone-free (relative to, say, > Ubuntu). It also helps, as afore-described, that > os0811 runs great from the USB HD. > > As I mentioned in a separate thread, Acer is > predicting that sales of the so-called netbooks may > reach 35 million units in 2009. If the netbooks do > become a ubiquitous item, imagine we can carry our > OpenSolaris HD around, and boot it from any machine > when needed. Totally independent from the built-in > OS. > > I have not tried this on Linux, but with OpenSolaris, > I can put the machine into the suspend mode, unplug > the USB HD, and conveniently carry it with me or keep > it in a safer place. Waking up the machine takes > only a few seconds. Very neat. > > I also have WinXP installed inside os0811 via Sun xVM > VirtualBox. Everyone has got to try this: running > WinXP from an external USB HD--and on top of > OpenSolaris--is as just snappy as I can ever recall > from my experience of running it on a bare metal.
According to a recent report, notebook sales, at 38.6 million units last quarter, has surpassed sales of desktops: http://preview.tinyurl.com/os-notebook I have not been able to convince anyone to install OpenSolaris on a new notebook (even I myself don't do that). Thus, we should try to push the notion of running OpenSolaris from an external USB HD. Compared to various Linux distros, OpenSolaris is more streamlines and much less confusing. While quite a few consumer/entertainment packages are not yet available in OpenSolaris, this should not be a problem as this setup has an inherent but detachably non-commingling dual-booting structure along side Windows Vista. The important message we want to send out is, when doing important stuff, whether on-line or off-line, do it in OpenSolaris--the real UNIX that has been tested for more than quarter of a century. I like my own setup very much, and would like to invite community members to give it more thorough tests. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
