You (Edward Ned Harvey) wrote: > I continually say that solaris & opensolaris are designed to be servers, not > desktops. I'd like to go into the reasons why, and see what other opinions > people have about this. > > > > The characteristics that I think make up servers: > > Servers are always on.
My small ATOM-510 based home-NAS-Server uses 48W when running close to idle, and uses ~65W, when under load... So, yes, it does power management, turns off unused disks, for example... Because you don't need all disks at all times... ;-) > Servers don't need power management; they never sleep. I would argue a bit different... ;-) Yes, they do need power management, as servers also have times of lower usage. It would be great if they would turn off unneeded ressources, which Solaris can do... ;-) > Servers are used remotely for the most part. > > > > The characteristics that I think make up desktops: > > Desktops have features which enhance process management and task switching. > > Desktops can easily run and be compatible with random web apps, like > dropbox, skype, flash, silverlight, etc. > > Desktops are expected to wake and sleep on a regular basis. > > Desktops do your audio/video > > Desktops need to connect with printers regularly. > > Desktops have external peripherals connected regularly - usb drives, > cameras, webcmas, headphones/headset, etc. > > Desktops will run your web browsers, office apps, pdf viewers, etc. Mail > clients, etc. > > Desktops will roam from network to network. You need to do wifi well. You > need to do network security/firewall well. > > > > So now, the reasons why I think solaris/opensolaris are well suited to be > servers and not so much as desktops: > > > > gnome etc, the gui of opensolaris is no better at task switching and > application management than windows XP was. This is obsolete compared to > aero, aqua, or compiz. (win7, osx, and ubuntu) These other OSes offer > gui's which are much more powerful and flexible in terms of application > management and task switching. Compiz is standard on OSOL... ;-) And Solaris always was and still is good at task-switching... That's to be learned on servers, where you have many, many tasks, and not only a small handful, like on desktops... (OK, I know, you were talking about a different "task switching" aspect here... ;-) ) > The application availability on sol/osol is not as good as win/mac/linux. > For example: Dropbox and skype are both available win/mac/linux. No > solaris. Flash is available win/mac/linux/solaris. Silverlight is > available win/mac. No linux or solaris. Bittorrent: win/mac/linux. Skype: http://blogs.sun.com/migi/entry/skype_on_opensolaris_the_last Flash: Flash 9 is available... Bittorrent: http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=272361 > There are no desktop apps available in sol/osol, which aren't also available > in the other platforms. But there are lots of apps available in the other > platforms, which aren't available in sol/osol. > > > > I have never put sol/osol to sleep. So I cannot say anything about this. > Does it work? Is it highly configurable and reliable? Works. Suspend to RAM, not yet Suspend to disk... > Hardware compatibility for audio/video is a problem for sol/osol. Not very > good at 3D. Not compatible with lots of webcams and microphone devices and > cameras etc. And printers. 3D? Used nvidia graphics board, and you should have slightly better 3d than on the same hardware with Linux or Windows... ;-) Printers? OSOL uses CUPS, just like close to all Linuxes...;-) > For both sol/osol and linux, there is no good calendar application. You > need either Outlook, Entourage, or iCal for this. Reliable reminders > available online/offline, with addressbook and email integration. What about lightning in Thunderbird? > By default during installation, even if you indicate you aren't going to use > it remotely, sshd is enabled. > > By default, there is no firewall. There is, ipfilt, but it's not switched on by default. OTOH, OpenSolaris is installed as "secure by default"... ;-) > I haven't used sol/osol for wifi. Does it have a good wifi utility for > joining networks? NWAM should do, never tried it yet... -- Matthias Pfützner | mailto:pfu...@germany | Die interessantesten @work: +49 6103 752-394 | @home: +49 6151 75717 | Interaktionen finden im SunCS, Ampèrestraße 6 | Lichtenbergstraße 73 | Kopf statt, nicht in der 63225 Langen, FRG | 64289 Darmstadt, FRG | Maus. (Brian Eno) _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
