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Re: [News] [Rival] Sun Fails to Protect Its Users, Says eEye

Roy Schestowitz wrote:


> 
> OpenSolaris fans in a tizzy over 'Project Copy Linux'
> 
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Sun Microsystems has moved one mailing list posting closer to explaining
> | how it plans to mimic the Linux distribution model with OpenSolaris.
> | 
> | [...]
> | 
> | The Solaris vendor spent the early part of this century mocking Linux.
> | Next, it forced then CEO Scott McNealy to don a penguin suit and waddle
> | around in front of analysts, extolling the virtues of Sun's own flavor
> | of Linux. Then, Sun scrapped its own Linux in favor of selling Red Hat,
> | while also mocking Red Hat.
> | 
> | Now we find Sun trying to imitate part of the development model pushed
> | by Canonical and Red Hat. Even though Sun likes to hold tight control
> | over the Solaris proper releases, you can imagine the vendor picking
> | up valuable bits and pieces created by the OpenSolaris developer
> | community, just like the Linux vendors do with the work produced by
> | their developer armies.
> `----
> 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/31/sun_project_indiana/
> 
> 

I think this is a good thing. Even in Linux we need some genuine
competition, not just different versions based on the colour of the
desktop.

Sun have put a lot into Linux, for example they didn't have to give us the
best Office suite you can get, for free, they are clearly determined to put
a great deal into Solaris's future.

It doesn't really matter if they choose to do this in a thread of their own.
It still works in Linux's favour. 

Solaris and Linux are not really the same thing. They are the same in that
they both follow on from the UNIX way, but their respective market areas
was different in many ways. I can tell you straight up that Solaris is
first choice of many an IT person particularly those covering medium to
large systems, but it was very unlikely to be first choice for home users
or even work clients. Maybe would have won many a workstation spot.

Now that Solaris is going to be targeting the other end of the market too it
will put itself into a place where it can start to win in homes and offices
where Linux might have gone. Genuine competition but different enough to
attract different mind sets. Never forget that Sun was seen by most of us
UNIX folk as the bees knees, I for one was never in a place where we could
afford Sun, but if we could then no one else stood a chance. They were
simply the best servers with the best UNIX and by far the best
workstations.

Do you know for example that much of the capabilities of your super-modern
graphics cards started life on Sun workstations? When we at home and at
work were getting excited about the first of the 4 layer graphics cards,
Sun was already on 16 and 24 layers. When we were getting a thrill out of
our first graphics cards that could actively participate in rendoring of
shapes, on Sun work stations it was already old news.

We want Sun in Linux, they have been great so far and will grow with us. Ok,
there have been rocky times, but please never doubt that Sun in Linux,
whether that is their own flavour or in partnership with another (more
likely both of those) is at least as important as IBM's place in Linux in
keeping us ahead of Windows.

We are ahead of Windows, don't count bums on seats that never proves
anything, in the world of computing the OS that allows you to do those
things on a computer that you want to do with minimum risk is the OS that
is ahead, and that is us.



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