One of the things that does kinda concern me here is that by just jumping on the GNU bandwagon and hoping for a smooth ride is a bit backward. I think most people who have worked on multiple OS's know that the GNU tools do have their issues and conflicts. Ultimately, if Sun wants to improve those tools, then great. However, if the hope is that the GNU toolset will attract users and developers.. I think that idea maybe a little flawed. If the idea is to be on par with Linux and hope that people will switch because of all the GNUness and Solaris specific features.. I'm not sure that's the best path. Definitely it helps.. but I don't think it'll magically cause a mass migration. What would be nice is some leadership in standards that bridges the gaps and makes Solaris the *best* platform for enterprises and for professional desktop/workstation users. If the idea is to go after the real desktop users across the globe.. then Sun should merge with Apple and learn what everyday people really need and expect.
As things stand, continuing to go after the Linux user base is like trying to convert the religion of people.. pointless and a waste of effort. Apple understands that the real attraction for everyday users is differentiation and quality. OpenSolaris has come a long way and it's good that we are trying to accomodate user expectations. However, to fall into the trap of "we have to be like Linux to survive" is a dangerous and almost "end game" way of looking at the future. Where is the leadership? I think we all want the best platform to be OpenSolaris. Would it not make more sense to work with the different organizations and development teams to build a unified cross-platform toolset? I think enough consolidation has happened in the UNIX and UNIX-like market for people to come together and build something we can all be happy with. Let people choose their kernel and native toolset.. but atleast have a common toolset across all the platforms for the basics:) It's happening in other areas, such as Xorg.. minus the fact that MacOSX has a better GUI and doesn't need X11. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Octave J. Orgeron Solaris Virtualization Architect and Consultant Web: http://unixconsole.blogspot.com E-Mail: [email protected] *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ----- Original Message ---- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: I. Szczesniak <[email protected]> Cc: Open Solaris <[email protected]>; ast-users <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 12:56:58 PM Subject: Re: [osol-discuss] [indiana-discuss] why gnu chmod in os2008.11? > It would be better to go with the ATT AST tools > (http://www.research.att.com/sw/download/). AST supports many of the > BSD and GNU command line options missing in the native Solaris > userland and conform to POSIX. If those tools are truly compatible with the GNU variants and track feature changes with the GNU "upstream" (so to speak), then certainly they are worth considering. However, the intent here is to be compatible/familiar with the vast majority of UNIX-based systems where new development is taking place. As far as I can see, those are GNU/Linux and MacOS X systems. Although compatibility with current Solaris systems in also very important, in order for OpenSolaris to survive (and not just stagnant), it needs to move forward to embrace the audiences not currently using it. _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected] _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
