

OpenSolaris vs Linux - kungfudoi
http://www.tuxradar.com/content/opensolaris-vs-linux

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eleitl
Does it have access to 17+ kPackages, like Debian does?

What about the tools duality? GNU and Solaris concepts are sufficiently
different to require two set of binaries, and $PATH split-personality.

Also, Sun (or Oracle) is firmly in control of kernel development. There's no
community yet, nor signs of an emerging one, so there's some danger of
standing in abandonware land.

Apart from that I like OpenSolaris fine. However, its chiefest advantage is
zfs, and btrfs should be there in 3-4 years. So the clock is ticking.

~~~
bensummers
Packages: You're right, that is a weakness. However, the important stuff is
there, and compiling other things is rarely a problem. OK for experienced
admins, bad for newcomers.

Tools: Solaris has a strong history of standards compliance, so you've got the
standards based tools, and the GNU tools. Different audiences prefer different
tools. GNU tools are now the defaults to cater for people coming from Linux.

Sun/Oracle: Yes, this is an issue, and the uncertainty over the future worries
me somewhat -- you'll note Oracle only promised to spend more developing
Solaris, and OpenSolaris was not mentioned. Linux is also dependent on big
corporates for development, but there is more than one, reducing risk.
However, the Solaris model does result in a very clear vision of where things
should go, and I personally really like the consistent and stable result - no
wondering whether the new scheduler causes performance woes.

I'd also add Zones as well as ZFS as it's chief advantage, as the combination
is absolutely wonderful for development and testing. Also see here
[http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/5917-The-impact-of-
virtuali...](http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/5917-The-impact-of-
virtualisation.html) about the performance benefits of Zones for
virtualisation.

~~~
eleitl
> OK for experienced admins, bad for newcomers.

How difficult is to create Solaris packages from source? I must admit I never
had the problem.

> I'd also add Zones

Well, Linux has VServer.

> as well as ZFS

I agree zfs is nice. Particularly, given L2ARC and ZIL on SSDs, with large
SATA raidz2 or raidz3 behind them.

However, btrfs is making the right noises. Whether they deliver on them or not
is not yet known, but if they do Solaris needs quite a few more tricks up its
sleeve by then. I hope Oracle doesn't drop the ball.

~~~
bensummers
Solaris packages are easy to create, but getting things to compile can be
tricky as lots of open source code assumes Linux-isms, so you have to port to
standards. (BSDs have the same problem.)

Zones are integrated into the very core of the OS, not bolted on.

btrfs does sound like an improvement on ZFS in a few ways, especially in it's
COW b-trees, taking advantage of a few more years of development. Competition
will be good for ZFS, but right now, ZFS is probably the best shipping and
stable FS.

------
pieter
Is it just me, or is having to download a file, run a terminal and execute 5
commands just to get flash not a sign of a 'proper desktop OS'?

~~~
old-gregg
I find it sad and depressing that a buggy browser plug-in has managed to rise
to a status of "OS breaker". You can't be a successful smartphone upstart
without Adobe blessing these days (unless you're Apple)

Even github.com brings up "plugins are missing" bar in Firefox. Github? WTF?
By the way how do I disable plug-ins in FF like I had them turned off in
Safari? It keeps bugging me with that annoying bar.

~~~
mrduncan
I believe GitHub only uses flash for their repo location copy button which
lets you copy a repository location onto your clipboard without having to
select it and then copy it manually.

~~~
tvon
Yeah, I didn't even know until I installed ClickToFlash.

I don't know why they do though, maybe flash has better clipboard access than
javascript..?

