On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 9:18 PM, Shawn Walker <swal...@opensolaris.org> wrote: > On 01/28/10 09:07 PM, Jason King wrote: >> >> I seem to recall the whole point of the project Indiana (now >> OpenSolaris the distribution) versus SXCE was to have a desktop >> oriented distribution (with the idea of trying to entice developers >> from other *nix variants). Hence the prioritization of the graphical >> installer before a text-based one (thus x86 before sparc), interactive >> installations before automated ones, nwam being the default, bash >> being the default shell, GNU utilities being the default, etc. If >> someone wants to argue those are appropriate for a server setting >> instead of a desktop, I'd like to know the name of their pharmacist =] > > Given that almost all of the bits of functionality you mentioned above are > often found in GNU/Linux server distributions too, I don't see the issue. > Yes, some of the bits were prioritised before others, but I've used (and > installed) numerous GNU/Linux distributions in the past that used graphical > installers, automated network configuration, GNU utilities, and bash as the > default shell :)
The pieces prioritized were those most geared for the desktop -- as I said (but perhaps wasn't clear) I don't think that's necessarily wrong (I won't rehash the implications of a GNU userland in the context of Solaris, that's been beaten to death, and will hopefully become a moot point between the stuff I and Roland have been doing is complete), but it does mean that currently the lack of usability at the server level is a valid criticism (for now, I'm hopeful it will not continue to be one). My point was that to pretend that's not the case (even if the eventual goal is to make sure it's equally suitable for both desktop and the enterprise) when all the historical evidence suggests otherwise just looks bad. The desktop was prioritized first, but now more work is being done to make it more suitable for the enterprise (and I do actually see that btw). No matter what the choice is, in the world of finite resources, someone's going to be disappointed, so I don't know that any particular order is necessarily 'better'. It just is what is it is, but don't pretend it's not -- that's all I'm suggesting. > Somehow, I don't think those are issues that are a large barrier to > adoption. And yes, I remember installing operating systems from *tape* and > floppy disk...you want to talk about barriers! But there still are barriers (at the moment) for adoption in the enterprise. No I don't think they're insurmountable, nor that the won't get addressed (I do actually read pkg-discuss, so I do see the work that's going on, and see that it's being worked on), but the barriers are there for the moment. _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
