Could not help jumping into this discussion. On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Jim Grisanzio <Jim.Grisanzio at sun.com>wrote:
> Sriram Narayanan wrote: > >> - Why should I use OpenSolaris 2009.06 when it looks the same as Ubuntu ? >> >> > > Well, the OpenSolaris distribution is not really intended as a general > purpose operating system for general users (like Mac and Windows, I mean), > and that's really the basis of a question phrased like this. I use Ubuntu a > lot, too, and I don't see that system as a general purpose OS either > (although it's certainly getting close). Now, OpenSolaris is getting very > easy to install, update, and use these days, so we are absolutely starting > to engage more general users out there, which is excellent. But the > intention for the distro at this stage is more to engage developers (and > students, of course) initially. I have been working towards promoting OpenSolaris to students and developers for quite sometime now, and from my experience, one can very easily commit the mistake of misplacing OpenSolaris as a full fledged alternative of Windoze or even Linux for an average desktop users. As you rightly said, OpenSolaris is still not there... Linux is a great operating system and if the need is to use it for a desktop machine with average development and programming stuff then there are not many reasons why one would prefer OpenSolaris over linux at this stage. OpenSolaris is no comparison to Windows anyways.. Just because we have got easy install options, fair device driver support and now, satisfactory multimedia support, we do not become the OS everyone should use. If someone is happy with Linux that means he or she does not need the features which set asides OpenSolaris in the lot. When it comes down to using Operating System as a platform which will run __YOUR__ application, OpenSolaris definitely makes the cut. Students always tend to compare OpenSolaris with Linux (specially Ubuntu) in terms of ease of use, package support etc, which by no means, is the dimension in which OpenSolaris is competing with Linux at this state. As members and old time users of Solaris/OpenSolaris, I feel it is our role to explain them the utility of OpenSolaris as a development platform and not just an operating system. Its always good to have many many many users in the community, but from what I see, people who are not looking for advanced features which would support development, very quickly get disillusioned by OpenSolaris and write it off as a inferior to Linux. I don't think they are fault. We'll see about the future. :) I am encouraged that Toshiba is shipping the > OpenSolaris distro on some laptops in a pilot program in the US/UK. Who > knows where that will go when a gigantic vendor like Toshiba tries out > OpenSolaris on their laptops. I am also encouraged that here in Japan the > Jaris distro of OpenSolaris is designed specifically to reach out to Windows > users. > > Also, extending a bit the notion of why someone would get involved in > OpenSolaris: I think that engineers may want to use and contribute to the > technologies being developed in OpenSolaris (many of which are very advanced > and quite distinct from Ubuntu/Linux), some guys find that joining a new > development community is an opportunity to start something new (either > locally or in the main project), some people are coming from the Sun/Solaris > base and are simply more familiar with this stuff, and others are totally > new and have no opinions either way and are just being exposed to > OpenSolaris fresh. There are many reasons why people would use OpenSolaris. > > Many times people will ask me this question and expect a competitive > response. I never give it. Linux has great things to offer, and so do we. > The technologies may be somewhat different, and the communities are at > different stages in their respective life cycles, but there is more than > enough opportunities to go around for both. I couldn't agree more with you on this point! > I use both systems and contribute to both communities and have done so for > a few years now. > > > > - Is the kernel GPL ? Why not ? >> > As someone says ahead in this thread, I do not understand why would people not like a technology just because its not GPL. No one complains when they use Firefox or Apache and such stuff.. I guess OpenSolaris community members would have to make it more clear to everyone that CDDL is not a restrictive license. In my opinion there is a big room for innovation and contribution even with CDDL license and kickass technologies like Belenix are great examples of it. Regards, Abhishek > >> > > OpenSolaris uses CDDL (http://sun.com/cddl/) and that was necessary due to > the many licenses used in the kernel going way back in time. Some of the > older code Sun simply didn't own so some of our licensing options were > limited. So, we needed (and specifically wanted) a FOSS license that would > work well with multiple licenses. Simon Phipps and his team wrote a really > good white paper a few years ago about the key FOSS licenses, and I think > the context is excellent to help people understand Sun's licensing > strategies: > > Free and Open Source Licensing White Paper > http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/benefits.jsp > > http://www.sun.com/software/opensource/whitepapers/Sun_Microsystems_OpenSource_Licensing.pdf > > ****************** > OpenSolaris: Licensing to Balance Enterprising Development and a Strong > Commons > The OpenSolaris community that is developing upon the a free and open > source Solaris source code base > wanted to have a strong community focused around the Solaris code > commons?but also wanted to > afford developers the ability to mix in code of other licensing origins in > order to create the most > innovative derivative works possible, without restrictions on the licensing > of those works. This desire to > balance a commercial incentive to innovate with the desire to enrich the > commons led to the choice of > the Category B CDDL, which Sun developed from the MPL, expressly to > encourage the creation of > derivative works for commercial purposes while still strengthening and > protecting the commons. > ****************** > > > > - Is ZFS GPL ? Why not ? (This was not asked with a reason to get into >> a disagreement) >> >> > > No, but Jeff and Linus appear to be friends. :) Who knew? > > http://blogs.sun.com/bonwick/en_US/entry/casablanca > > > Jim > > _______________________________________________ > advocacy-discuss mailing list > advocacy-discuss at opensolaris.org > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/advocacy-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/advocacy-discuss/attachments/20091202/765163d8/attachment-0001.html>
