> What I am suggesting is that we should finish the work started in the > emancipation community, pull in the groundbreaking build and boot > efforts from the various other distros (starting with Schillix, > Belinix and the IBM/z port simply because Joerg, Moinak and Neale are > involved) and produce the tools, docs and code needed to enable others > to easily grab the OpenSolaris source code from OpenSolaris.org's > mercurial repos, build the bits and boot a running OpenSolaris kernel > without reference to or use of closed-bin bits, proprietary-to-Oracle > binary repositories or tools. > > In my mind, *not* being able to do this simple thing ourselves is a > liability that needs to be addressed... > > -John
John, I couldn't agree more, but am in wait-see mode. I installed Ubuntu on a laptop this week, everything works and is built with open source. Even the newest OpenOffice with the Oracle logo on it is included in the latest 10.04 release. VPN (IPSEC/IKE), audio, video, NIC, wifi, hibernate, sleep, suspend, everything works, I'm using it on a docking station closed but attached to a monitor. While the Broadcom driver for wifi doesn't ship with the distro, there is an automated process to strip the firmware out of the chipset so that the driver can be built. I am keeping an eye on this community, as I do still have Solaris running on my 2 servers at home, but it seems that Linux will ultimately be more important for my work. Amazing that all the codecs seem available that I need, the plugins work, and I even have a Chrome browser on Linux. Solaris management was always saying that couldn't be done, but the codecs are available over the wire, transparent in the distros of Linux. This is how Solaris should be. Adobe doesn't provide a SPARC release of AcroRead anymore, and Cisco doesn't provide VPN clients for Solaris on x86 (SPARC only). This quagmire will play havoc for Oracle, IMO, as well as the community in general. Oracle has deep pockets to rectify that problem, but time will tell if they feel compelled to assist. Seeing Marsland and Gosling leave didn't leave me with the warm fuzzies that Oracle is behind open source, but that is just opinion/speculation. Finally, after 8 years since the infamous Jan. 8, 2002 fiasco, Anil Gadre is gone I have heard...maybe justice served after all, but not before Sun as a company was toast. Gosling's graphic pretty much said it all...R.I.P. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
