> > One of the selling points of Solaris > > was that the same kernel runs on everything from a > laptop to a > > mainframe > > Not sure I get you there. > (a) how is that different from anything else there are many discussion threads and blogs about how even linux has to be customised and tuned to run on systems with lots of CPUs (I mean as SMP single-image OS, not a cluster of small machines running separate images) > (every OS I know of is like that) Excellent! That's great news, I'll tell our engineer to put Windows 7 starter edition on teverything and it'll save us a fortune (free updates too)!
> and (b) what's the value-add? Why would > anybody care very much about that? I think some of those who care have already answered that question > > > Now that no-one > > will pay to support Solaris running on anything > > smaller than a mainframe > What??? I'm afraid I'm going to have to call your > bluff here. You mean all > those 1U and 2U and 4U servers from Oracle, Dell, > etc, sold with solaris? > You don't think people buy them? Or you think they > count as "mainframe?" Maybe I exaggerated by saying 'no-one' but yes, we bought 1U servers from Sun, and they came with Solaris 10 pre-installed for free. So it cost us nothing to wipe it and install Linux. I said "pay to support", not "buy a computer with it installed". For workstations and servers most businesses can use Windows or Linux for a fraction of Oracle's support charges for Solaris. My point was that with Sun providing free patch support (also provided by Microsoft), it was OK to use Solaris across the business and enjoy some of the advanced features it has over the alternatives, whilst also using it for serious requirements on mainframes, and enough staff would be familiar with it. But when Oracle took over, they did a spot of 'turd polishing' then re-launched it as a premium product only available with a full hardware/software support contract. Now the advanced features of Solaris that are 'nice to have' on workstations and servers are mostly not worth that money, so the migration to a cheaper alternative starts there. Then the sysadmins start to learn that the alternatives can meet the same requirements when used in the right way, and then the budget managers start asking them whether they can make savings on the big-iron too. If you can see how Oracle expects their strategy to *expand* the adoption rate of Solaris then do please enlighten me. [OT] Cutting off the free updates is a bit like the mentality of the media industry against filesharers. They regard every downloaded copy as a 'lost sale' but after cracking down on filesharers and putting them out of business they still can't attribute any new sales to this action, and all they do is alienate their customers. It's more about spite than business sense. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
