On May 30, 2006, at 9:47 PM, Kaiwai Gardiner wrote:
Personally, I'd love for Solaris x86 to get to the point where we
aren't bitching about hardware support or lack of ISV's, but
instead complaining about how we're *TOO* productive with Solaris,
and how there are too many software and hardware pices we can
choose from.
HW support is an issue (known and acknowledged by Sun engineers), and
it is being worked on. This takes time. Maybe you weren't, but I was
dealing with linux in the .99-pre days, and OSOL is FAR ahead of
where linux was during this this period. It takes *time*. It took
linux 5-6 years, from the .99-pre point I got involved, until it was
semi-usable on a fair amount of HW. OSOL is in the same boat, but it
is progressing much more rapidly.
Concerning ISVs, Solaris/OSOL has way more support than linux ever
did during it's inception. OSOL is new, and it is gaining ground at a
phenomenal pace. Don't criticize a project for doing it's best, offer
input (negative or positive) in a constructive manner. Code
submissions are more than welcome, I am absolutely sure. This isn't
the issue I was commenting about, however, nor is it the content of
the majority of your recent posts, and that is the problem.
The day when I hear someone complain on this forum about the fact
that there are too many choices when it comes to desktop
publishing, photo manipulation and music capturing etc. on Solaris
x86, then I think Solaris has made progress.
I agree, if people are complaining about too many choices, Solaris
(maybe you meant OSOL?) is in a good position.
The day when I hear geeks say, "why would I want to run Linux when
I can run Solaris, have a great desktop, and all those awesome
mainstream applications", then Solaris has made progress - until
then, Solaris will remain the red headed step child of the x86 UNIX
world, with FreeBSD and Linux users asking why they should move to
a platform that is wowfully lacking in hardware support, mainstream
software vendor support and lacks any strong direction from the
powers that be.
That's funny, and THIS was the reason for my post. I moved from Linux
(Debian) to FreeBSD for various reasons, mostly technical, around the
2.2.x days. Now, I've moved to Solaris 10 for the same reasons.
Usability comes with USERS. People are interested in OSOL (this
mailing list makes it apparent.) Usability will follow. The key is
users providing constructive feedback, code, and so forth to improve
things as they wish. Just like it happened with linux from .99-pre
on, from FreeBSD 2.x on, and so forth.
This most recent mail from you clarifies the important things that
need to occur in order to make OSOL viable on the desktop (as you so
wish.) And I'm sure *anybody* reading this mail from you would have
absolutely no problem with it, and would be more than happy to help
clarify things, expand on the roadmap, give you the current direction
and so forth. The key is how you deal with us (the community.) When
you approach us (the OSOL community) in the manner you displayed in
*THIS* mail, all of us would do our best to help you, clarify things,
and provide what you ask. We're all open to your opinions as well,
and your opinions very well may change our viewpoints, or at least
give us more direction. This is what constructive discussion does!
This is what the community needs! Not negative harsh feedback with no
basis, and unsupported and unsubstantiated claims of meaninglessness
simply aimed at hurting those involved. I hope you spend time to
reflect on that, and I sincerely hope the rest of your stay on this
mailing list is as clear and non-inflamitory as the post I am
replying to. Nobody is out to get you, we are all here by choice. You
should be too. If you truly want the OSOL community/project to
succeed, please be a part of the positive influence that is needed
for it to do so. I truly hope that your intent with this most recent
post was to head in a more positive direction, because we need to
stick together if what you want (Solaris/OSOL on the desktop) is to
be true.
Thanks,
David\
_______________________________________________
opensolaris-discuss mailing list
opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
