Lars Tunkrans wrote:
Ian Murdock wrote:
So, what will be the big features in Indiana? You tell me--and,
indeed, a discussion of features could be a great way to actually
get off on the right foot here given the somewhat rocky start so
far.. My list: packaging, installation, GNU userland alongside
"Solaris classic userland", and laptop support (see what
I mean that there are already people working on these things?).
Hi,
I would like to report that regarding the laptop issues many of them
have actually been resolved already.
with Build 63 SXDE I have :
Automatic Graphics card recognition.
Most graphics cards are recognized with Solaris Express. I fact Solaris
Express is the 'only'
OS that installed the Nvidia drivers off the OS media for my desktop.
For both Windows and
Linux it involved a download.
Automatic Wireless driver installation.
Automatic Network setup with wireless.
Whats needed in the laptop arena is more effort from SUN to convince
Vendors to make Specs for hardware available to the open source community
I bought an Intel 2200BG Mini-pci wireless card off a local shop. The comment
from the salesman was : " I cant believe how popular this wireless card is, do you know why ? "
So I told him that Intel made the specs for the device available to the opensource community , and
lots of people running Unix/Linux on their laptops were replacing the wireless devices from
Broadcom and others who did not publish the specs.
Yeah I would never buy another laptop with a ATI graphics card and a
broadcom wireless network card.
Thats the kind of effect on sales that opensourceing a hardware driver has.
Vendors need to be told.
It does not need to be opensource, as long as they make a driver
available for every platform :) Their Choice!
Regarding the Userland and the Toolchain needed to produce the userland:
Solaris has by now at least 4 different sets of toolchains/userland that I know of
( apart from Nexenta/benelix/shilix/martux distros ) for opensource S/W
Companion CD
Blastwave
Sunfreeware
KDE-Solaris
If you call KDE-Solaris a 'toolchain', then you should multiply your
figures by 100's. I don't see a problem
with 'multiple tool chains'. Most cater for different needs. Blastwave
for instance best suited for Solaris 8 to 10.
As long as they openly share patches and build specs I do not really see
a big problem.
All this stuff has risen from the need to compile and deliver opensource S/W on
solaris , because the ON-Solaris toolchain/libraries was not compatible enough at some
point in time.
No it is more the case that Sun could not afford to "support" costs for
their customers.
There has been discussions over and over again to address this problem
and create a common single set of opensource toolchain/userland for opensource
applications .
Personally I quite like choice. Not everybody builds their systems the
same way. Everybody has
different needs. For instance you will get a very heated discussion on
what packages and library
dependencies an application has. Some people want only the minimal
dependencies and give up
features of an application. Where others want the kitchen sink thrown in.
PLEASE: Do NOT create a FIFTH set of userland/toolchain to be used on top of
Solaris.
Please do!
If you want to achive usability and familiarty for the developer which
results in more applications for the users:
Spend 20 million dollars or so and unify these existing environments.
and secure agreements from the people involved to work together on
one environment.
A waste of 20 million...
Doug
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