On Fri, 2010-02-12 at 10:05 -0500, Dennis Clarke wrote: > OpenSolaris/Solaris friends : > > This ( see below ) is from a thread on the PCA patch tool maillist this > morning. I made a few replies to Martin and there may be some upset by > Sun/Oracle customers over this silent change. > > I'm fine with a fee. It would be nice if paying customers had known that > their new contracts were about to be terminated. Certainly people such as > myself that purchase support in January of each year. > > You can see the text below and hopefully this is a transition phase issue. > > If anyone knows, it would be nice if some light were shed on the topic. > > Dennis > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: Re: [pca] No more free patches > From: "Dennis Clarke" <[email protected]> > Date: Fri, February 12, 2010 10:01 > To: "PCA (Patch Check Advanced) Discussion" <[email protected]> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Hi, > > > > Get ready for some bad news: According to my sources there will be no > > more free access to any Solaris patch, be it security or not. A support > > contract will be required for every patch download, no matter whether > > it's done interactively through the website or hands-off with wget/pca. > > I've been told that this policy change won't by publically announced by > > Oracle, but it's described in this SunSolve document: > > > > #203648: Software Update Entitlement Policy for Solaris > > http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-61-203648-1 > > > > It already seems to be in effect. I tried to download various recent > > security patches and access is denied to any of them. > > > > Sooner or later access to patchdiag.xref and all other content currently > > on SunSolve will be limited to paying customers as well. > > > > No opinion, but a few thoughts: > > > > Using an operating system where the only way to fix security problems is > > waiting for the next version is a no-go, so the minimum cost for running > > Solaris on a real-world system is now that of a basic service plan (324$ > > and up per year). > > I am fine with a support contract fee on my servers. That is just business > and everyone would expect a small fee for service. > > Software is free. Service is not. > > "Software is Free, Service is Not: The Dawn of Service Networks" written > by ex-Oracle executives and co-founders of OpenWater - Mike Rocha and Tim > Chou. > > See > http://www.anshublog.com/2007/05/new-meme-software-is-free-service-is.html > > I have that book and I agree with its basic premise. Simply put, no > organization can support an operating system, application stack or any > software product for free. Period. > > > Sun didn't make enough money, so it's obvious that Oracle handles things > > differently. Whether this is a wise decision is left to the future. The > > fact that there's no public announcement reveals a lot. > > That bothers me. Given that I bought new contracts within the last 30 days. > > > There should be a much simpler way to get basic patch support (think > > about a PayPal button at the end of the OS installation to get the > > idea). And it definitely should cost less than the service plans. > > Personally, I'd prefer a one-time fee for the OS (which should be > > included in the price of a server when bought from Sun). > > That would be retrograde motion back to the days of the RTU license fee on > the Sparc servers. I doubt you can do such a thing with x86 servers or > machines based on a free download.
This will be the undoing of Solaris. One reason Sun got into such bad shape was because they were far, far to late in accepting the reality of the _competition_ from the FOSS world. CompSCI majors were using either MS because of it's ubiquity or Linux because of it's technical superiority and free availability. Hence, Solaris slipped slowly but surely into irrelevance in all but the financial services sector. I know CompSCI grads from the local U, for example, that had never even _heard_ of Sun Microsystems, before I pointed them to Open/Solaris. Open sourcing Solaris and making Solaris 10 freely available was starting to change this. But it happened too slowly and meanwhile the economy crashed, Sun got swallowed by Oracle, and now Solaris as an option for users who cannot afford expensive maintenance contracts just to get security updates is history. You think $350 a years is cheap? Ask small businesses hammered by the economic meltdown about their bail out checks. Ask people living in places like S. Africa. Moreover, not providing free Security patches is pure stupidity. Watch the increase in Solaris incursion reports sky rocket over coming months at the security sites in coming months. Solaris's reputation will be severely tarnished. But then I guess such was to be expected from a bunch of greedy bastards. -- Ken Gunderson <[email protected]> _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
