Brian Gupta wrote: > On 8/1/07, *Stephen Lau* <stevel at sun.com <mailto:stevel at sun.com>> wrote: > > Brian Gupta wrote: > > On 8/1/07, *Stephen Lau* <stevel at sun.com <mailto:stevel at sun.com> > <mailto:stevel at sun.com <mailto:stevel at sun.com>>> wrote: > > > > Brian Gupta wrote: > > > John, I think that OpenSolaris can mean all those things and > > more. And > > > it's all good... Can't we just use context to determine > the meaning? > > > > No. Examples: > > > > 1) I installed OpenSolaris > > - Did you install OpenSolaris the distribution? Or an > OpenSolaris-based > > distribution? > > > > > > SXCE or SDXE (I haven't heard people referring to nexenta as > > OpenSOlaris. Nexenta yes. Gnusolaris yes. Sobuntu yes. > > But why? Out of convention? Or for any technical reason? > > > Convention. (I assume this convention came about to prevent confusion.)
Seems to me this convention is leading to confusion... > > 2) I built OpenSolaris > > - Did you build OpenSolaris the distribution? Or build an > > OpenSolaris-based distribution? > > > > > > Generally it is interpreted as the ON consolidation. (I thought > this was > > pretty well understood.) > > Again, out of convention. But OpenSolaris is much much more than just > ON. Arguably JDS is the most open consolidation available on > OpenSolaris.org, definitely more open than ON. > > > Yes but convention is nothing to be overlooked. Even though we may not > understand or agree with them, there are always reasons that conventions > become conventions But if the convention is wrong, shouldn't we fight to prevent the convention from becoming one in the first place? I could start calling apples by the name "pear", and hope it becomes convention - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't say I'm wrong and declare it is in fact not a pear and is an apple. > > 3) Go grab OpenSolaris from OpenSolaris at OpenSolaris. > > - A nonsense sentence? Not if OpenSolaris can mean multiple > things. > > This could mean "Go grab OpenSolaris (the distribution) from > OpenSolaris > > (the webapp) at OpenSolaris (the website)" > > > > > > To me OpenSolaris (the bits/distro) has come to mean SXCE (I know > that > > this is so wrong in many ways. I wish we could just push the final > > wrapping of SXpress outside, so we can change the name to > OpenSolaris). > > Outside distros are always called by their name. > (Nexenta/Belenix/Shillix) > > ... while other people (including others in Sun) may agree with you > there, I don't. I think it's unfair to others for Sun to rename its > distribution to be "OpenSolaris" (which is a Sun trademark), thus > implying (to me anyway) that somehow their distribution is more > canonical (no reference to Canonical Ltd. intended) than any other > OpenSolaris-derived distribution. > > > When I talk to Sun and say I want to run OpenSolaris I am handed a nice > copy of either SXDE and/or SXCE. I am sure this is almost a universal > truth. Currently it is the closest thing to a referential OpenSolaris > distro. (At the New York UG meetings, I have made a point to also > represent the other distros. I will bring a stack of xyz opensolaris > distro and give asmall preso on it... So far I have covered Belenix and > Nexenta. Depends who you talk to at Sun, and in fact, this is why I believe therre is confused messaging coming out from both the community and Sun as to what OpenSolaris is. If you talk to me, I'll gladly give you an OpenSolaris starter kit with ALL the distributions on it, and I'll go to great lengths to explain how the distributions differ. Since SXCE/DE are in fact the only distro that can build ON, I'll grant you that yes they are the closest thing to a referential distro - but I would like to see that change. cheers, steve -- stephen lau // stevel at sun.com | 650.786.0845 | http://whacked.net opensolaris // solaris kernel development
