The scope of media-oriented purpose is still tilted toward Linux due to driver support. The scheduler can also be a source of problems depending on what you do on any UNIX or UNIX-like system. AM2 is not compatible with Barcelona, and this too is what I have. I would had gone with an Intel Sun system but at the time they didn't sell them, nor was it announced that it would happen, so I put my trust into something I should had done more research on. FreeBSD is pro because of architecture, it's cleaner, is completely evolutionary as opposed to jumping stages. It only has cons because the big dogs are ignorant and won't even read on the pros. My option is to dump Solaris, which I'd do in a heartbeat because the community around OpenSolaris in particular is still very much closed in nature, and use FreeBSD and Windows, as I have been for years, losing out on ZFS, which is becoming stable on FreeBSD. Switch to qemu + kqemu for particular applications, and hopefully migrate more people I know to use sip as Skype and the like are not friendly options. I'm very very close to doing this, not because I bought hardware because I needed an upgrade in September 2007, but because Sun is falling into the water again from a management perspective, and is still too closed for my liking in areas where it should at least be trying not to be.
For my uses, I find Solaris gives me benefits, but they are offset by poor management and communication problems that I have not seen so bad on the FreeBSD side. I too am a UNIX SA, but even there Solaris is becoming no better than the alternatives. Only on scaled setups will I consider new Solaris installs, aside from personal use. I as of late will not recommend it unless the customer has specific reliability needs, and this is one area that Solaris still delivers in. James On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 4:15 AM, Christian Walther <cptsalek at gmail.com> wrote: > Hello James, > > thank you for your answer. > > 2008/6/30 James Cornell <sparcdr at gmail.com>: > > TSC support is required under Solaris for cpufreq on MP systems due to > > realtime accounting needs. Systems before Barcelona will not work in MP > > mode with frkit on PowerNow K8. Replacing with Barcelona will allow you > to > > use cpufreq, reducing your power bill. > > I read some docs on this issue, and see where this is coming from. > One forum thread mentioned that the AMD Phenom should not show this > behaviour, can someone here second that? > Since my mobo features an AM2 slot I can't switch to the newer > Opterons. Sounds like overkill, too. But if the Phenom is a working > alternative to the Athlon64 X2 I'm eager to get one. > > > Power savings will be offset by > > initial upgrade cost, which involves a new board and the cpu, but you > should > > see $25/mo savings per unit. I cannot afford to upgrade as I do so only > > every 2 years, so Solaris is quickly becoming a non-option as it is > becoming > > an expense as opposed to a gain. > > I got the entire machine in the beginning of this year, so changing > the entire hardware isn't an option for me neither. > > [...] > > FreeBSD, Windows XP/Vista, and Linux do not have the same realtime > > architecture (Or in cases no realtime at all) so they can save you money > on > > your older hardware. I would be running FreeBSD if VirtualBox were > > available, though I'm evaluating other systems as well. OpenSolaris is > > becoming worthless for my needs because they will not even attempt to > > backport, insisting that TSC dependence is a requirement, when I > personally > > would care less about time drift if I could actually save money. > Disabling > > the second core is also an option, which in large could be a stop-gap > until > > an upgrade is possible. > > IMO every OS has its pros and cons nowaday. I migrated from FreeBSD > because the virtualisation capabilities (jails) can't be compared to > what Solaris offers with Zones. Linux was fine in the past, but the > introduction of many new drivers and file systems opened up some > stability issues. Then there are some merely political aspects why I > started to dislike these two. > Additionally I work as an Solaris SysAdmin so having Solaris at home > makes dealing with another OS simply a loss of spare time. > I guess the reasons what OS to choose, and why, are an individual matter. > For me, I not only want a machine that can act as a media server > (record DVB-S video streams from some external source, for example) > but for some smaller website. Gives me the power of having all data in > a secure environment. And I don't need a contract with any company to > grant me some service that might turn out to be unreliable eventually. > > [...] > > Regards > Christian > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/laptop-discuss/attachments/20080701/addf1ed4/attachment.html>
