To be sure we are NOT running with blinders on. We are very aware of the issues because it impacts us in more ways than you can imagine. Any approach we take has to address a larger scope. While a solution that addresses 100% would be nice, having a solution that addresses 65% is not acceptable either. My gut feel is that it better be close to 100. But then again how do we measure this ? Among the many issues that need to be addressed is backward compatibility. For example, let's say we take a radical approach and go with a completely new packaging scheme, in Nevada. How will this impact people who want to upgrade from Solaris 10 or Solaris 9. Until recently we supported upgrades from 3 previous releases, which meant we had to support Solaris 8 too. I am not sure what kind of backward compatibility is required by Linux distros like RHAT or Suse.
The good news is that since there are other OpenSolaris distros, one can now experiment with various options. Nexenta for example uses the Debian format. And of course some of the feedback from such efforts and others (like you) will definitely help. This message posted from opensolaris.org
