On Wed, 2007-08-08 at 15:18 -0700, Alan DuBoff wrote: > On Thu, 9 Aug 2007, Kaiwai Gardiner wrote: > > >> 1) The new-boot architecture brought us into the modern age of > booting. > > > > Which was great - but need I be negative, but what took so long? it > took > > *that* long for Sun to realise their x86 booting royally sucked? > > This was one of the quicker project in Sun, I think it only was in > development for about 6 months. It's not that it took them that long > to > realize the boot on x86 sucked, but it's been the first chance that > it > could be changed, given the state of some of the other Solaris > integration. I tip my hat to the new boot team, this REALLY makes a > difference on modern hardware.
True - hopefully the new boot GRUB2 will be merged along with UEFI/EFI support - which a large number of laptops/desktops support these days (most modern bios's are based on it now). > >> 2) Xorg replaced Xsun as the X server, and we have more support for > video > >> than we ever had. > > > > But the hickory Xsun still remains - pkgconfig not located in once > place > > which causes all manner of problems when compiling applications > which > > use pkgconfig for dependency checking. It needs to be moved > completely > > to Xorg and the SPARC driver writers to be given a shock with a > cattle > > prod. > > I can't speak for the sparc driver theropy you mention, but it sounds > like > a decent plan.;-) Its just annoying - the low end graphics cards are nothing more than rebadged ATI stuff which has opensource drivers already - it would be a matter of rejigging the code to work on sparc. > I'm not gonna comment on some of your stuff like RealPlayer, because > complaining our player is not the same as windows is irrealevant, IMO, > at > least we have a player...for a long time we had to use a glue wrapper > and > run the SCO binary on Solaris. True - its more of an attack on my part against RealPlayer. > >> 5) NWAM - this will change the way folks use their laptops, the way > they > >> connect, and will elliminate much of the confusion in system > configuration > >> that prevents new folks from being able to use their systems more > easily. > > > > There is nwam but doesn't even have the ability to come back and > request > > the user when the password is wrong; in my case I changed my > password on > > my router and ended up screwed because there was no way to flush the > > existing setting from nwam to force redetection and requesting for > the > > password again. > > Again, first version, it's under development. The project was a > fairly > short one also, so the first cut is what it is. Give the developers > some > consideration, it's a tough problem to solve for the masses and keep > all > happy. True - I'm had a look at the page, it would be cool if there was more documentation about future developments. The way the page is put there as if nwam is complete and no more development is going to occur. > > I like JDS, but the bugs *need* to be fixed; take 2.18.x, it was > shipped > > knowing full well the albumart plugin for rhythmbox crashed the > > application - for instance. > > No argument. I've also noticed a number of disabled things too; for example, I want rhymbox to to communicate with Pidgin by way of a plugin using dbus - to update and put what I'm playing in pidgin. > > One asks, if there is a relationship with Intel, why isn't there a > 4965 > > driver yet for Solaris > > I'm not familiar with the 4965, but the 3945 wifi is under > development > with specs provided as is some of the Intel video (945/955/965). Intel > is > being a genuine partner, AFAIK, I see no reason to wonder about that > relationship, they have already come through and have provided specs. Had a chat to the Intel guy; hopefully they fix 3945 to allow power management and WPA support. > > which is no better than the 'screw you' relationship that AMD has > with > > Sun and their refusal to play ball when it comes to working on ATI > > drivers. > > I don't have enough info to comment on that, but suffice to say that > Sun > is working to get the ATI specs for the video cards, and I believe > they > might have received some of the specs to date, but not certain. >From what I understand through Alan, its like getting blood from a stone. > > The executives can speak - but I want them to go out, purchase a > laptop, > > without any help, and install Solaris without an assistance. Thats > the > > benchmark that needs to be used. People can talk - heck, i can get > up in > > front of customers and lie through my teeth, its not difficult. > > This has happened in Solaris engineering for a while, and it forced > some > of them to not just understand, but seek out help to get it installed > and/or configured. I think they understand what needs to be done, and > know > the state things are in, but Rome wasn't built in a day. To that > point, I > do believe this things listed over the past couple years are > significant > improvements. True - there are big improvements but there are alot of small things; the PCFS support for example which has compatibility issues. > > The question is, do management *really* know how much resources > *need* > > to be invested in Solaris - besides what the bean counters and a few > x86 > > hating bigots scream from the cheap seats? > > I think they know better than someone like you does. They have been > managing and running the Solaris development for quite some time, and > while every Tom, Dick, and Harry always feels they can run Sun better > than > Sun, managing a company of 35,000 employees is not that easy. True, but the feeling has been that there is a divorce between management and the state of the products - a 'well, this is what I've been told, I've never used it, but I trust what they're tell me is true' - thats the feeling when I heart them speak about their product line up. > > OpenSound for example - when is it being merged? > > Being worked as we type...Management has put resources into getting > it > putback. It will take more than a couple days to get it in though, and > I > think that's a good thing. We don't want to make it too easy for folks > to > put something back, otherwise we'll have every little un-needed piece > of > open source available. True - but at the same time it is a major needed addition. Like I said, none of the graphical recorders work, the volume adjuster on occasions just simply stop working thus forcing me to use ossxmix. Matthew _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
