OpenSolaris 2008.05 is robust and ready

Seems to me that OpenSolaris is deliberating trying to steal away Linux's thunder rather than "interoperate" in a significant way with Linux. To wit: - CDDL different from GPL as noted in this story - OpenSolaris alreay owned and promoted in beaucoup-heaps by SUN and affiliates - The super, great ZFS filesystem acting as a patent-trap, and nearly ready to lock in your nearby large enterprise - Maybe too little way for OpenSolaris experimenters to go back to Linux or *BSD ?

SUN will just keep doing its pro-OpenSolaris & ZFS spin, spin, spin.....

Thing to hope for is that another GPL'd filesystem, and other than ZFS, ends up becoming a gotta-have. 2c

I can't even get OpenSolaris to install in VirtualBox, and they're both owned by Sun.

So unless someone has a OpenSolaris.VDI sitting around, I can't even test it.

I didn't have a problem installing it in VirtualBox OSE, but it is very slow. It takes a while to boot the install ISO image.

number6x, that's weird, because booting from an ISO image should be very fast. I do it a lot to test new Linux releases, and I also use them on network installation servers.

Everything is slow with OpenSolaris. I got it to install, but it was extremely slow on an Athlon X2 5200+ with 4 GB of RAM. And I don't use the term "slow" lightly - I've used Vista!

TC I think it is solaris that is slow. Linux iso images are fine on Virtual Box. That's what I use it for, testing live linux distros.

I couldn't get it to run on ANY of my boxes, including a plain-vanilla Dell. The Sun people did take notice, but I imagine they think I'm a lost cause.

However, I could get MilaX, a small, OpenSolaris-based system to run on just about everything. I could also get Belenix -- a bigger OpenSolaris-based distro -- to run, though it wouldn't recognize my Ethernet port.

All I can say is that the OpenSolaris desktop people ought to take a closer look at MilaX and adjust accordingly.

As the Linux.com review said, it's something to consider on the server, but for the desktop it's just not ready.

And Sun needs to make a case as to why we should choose OpenSolaris over Linux or BSD for the desktop.

On the other hand, I'm very eager to try the Sun-sponsored Virtual Box. It looks way easier to figure out than Xen (and it runs on Linux, Windows and Mac OS, as well as Solaris).

The first virtualization solution that enables me to install Windows NT 4 and then upgrade to Windows 2000 (which is the only way I can install Windows, since I'm dancing with the discs I have), that will be the winner ...

In my very personal opinion :- 1.Working with Solaris (codename Nevada) and Solaris xVM (the most recent build 97) requires special skills set. 2. Solaris xVM (3.1.4) is very slow vs Xen 3.2 (3) running on CentOS 5.2 Dom0. Specially , with HVM domUs. Any upcoming Nevada build has new bugs:- B96 cannot be installed as PV domU anywhere. B97 fixes this issue, however has Xvnc broken B98 fixes bug with Xvnc , but doesn't allow to create any HVM DomU via virt-install B99 is supposed to fix mentioned bug, but it's not out yet. All mentioned issues are known CR's at opensolaris.org. I would be very careful in regards of having Solaris Nevada xVM in Dom0.

TC, on the Dell I tried to boot from the OpenSolaris CD, it literally sat there booting for HOURS ... finally building a GNOME desktop. But something was very wrong, eating up tons of CPU for no good reason, and that was in the live environment.

All I can say is wow. Robust and ready for what?

I first learned *NIX on SunOS in 1992.

Compared to Linux, it was a mess.

I asked one of the best sysadmins I've met about it, and he said that's because Solaris is built "from the bottom up". That is, one has a little bit of code, to which one begins to add things on, layer upon layer, until one has a system working like they like.

A Linux install is much more of a "here's a minimum (with variations on minimum) that provides a full environment". Packages are then added, but they don't "layer on", they fit in the existing framework.

Really I have no interest in Solaris beyond simple curiosity, same as when I pulled down the live-CD of Minix. It would be nice if it would install under VirtualBox, but it puts up half a dozen little white dots and then just stops. The CD spins down, and nothing happens until I turn it off.

Sad, really. And yes, I have done a search for a OpenSolaris.VDI, no luck.