OpenSolaris-based OSes a Threat to Linux?

sunBoy asks: "A number of OpenSolaris-based Operating Systems are popping up on the map. BeleniX (screenshots), SchilliX and Nexenta (screenshots) are a few OSes which have hit the headlines in the past couple of weeks. Some say OpenSolaris has a leg up on Linux - 'For Linux, we're trying to push many distributions through to compress them into a standard. With OpenSolaris, we are already at the small end of standardization. What will follow is more OpenSolaris distributions spreading out from that core.' Is OpenSolaris really a threat to Linux?" Less of a threat and more of an alternative. Would more Unix-based alternatives on the market really be a bad thing?

Competion is good for you

[davecb]

Linux and BSD should compete head to head with Solaris for stuff that matters to nerds, like quality, scalability, performance and so on.

Companies can do the competing over money.

--dave (who works for a conpany and definitely likes money (:-)) c-b

Surely, you jest. Whatevah.

[ubiquitin]

Look SunBoy, even Solaris incorporated GNOME so that Sun wouldn't have to build out their own desktop software. You can't be serious about the GNU-Free-World all of a sudden capitulating after more than a decade to just decide that for a few minor improvements that they would rather work on top of an OS by Sun, open or not.

Totally appropriate that the fortune cookie that came up on the bottom of that story's page is:
"I am not sure what this is, but an `F' would only dignify it."

OT - OS Dir screenshits

[twilight30]

Is there anyone who honestly believes that OSDir.com provides any service of any use whatsoever? Christ, it's the same set of 60-80 screenshots of the same window managers and office apps, just using different themes.

They could just make up the names of the themes and distros used and no one would notice the frigging difference...

Re:Not really.

[FidelCatsro]

Well Hurd has RMS(and a fair few others) and he is a one man Army of fanatics in and of himself , will have to wait and see how HURD comes along (eventually) .
As for Darwin well I am sure Apple and OS X users may disagree there

Re:evolution has already spoken

[DrSkwid]

In evolution there is no winner.

More like BSD

[duffbeer703]

OpenSolaris will be more like the *BSDs, since the core is controlled by one organization and will dictate architectural things. (And avoid the bickering and bullshit that often hinders Linux development)

Competition is a good thing. If OpenSolaris takes marketshare from Linux, the end result will be a better Solaris and a better Linux.

Re:OT - OS Dir screenshits

[Gaima]

I don't think the service is totally useless, just pointlessly overkill with a stupid navigation system.

All we need are a few screenies of the install system, couple pointing out the features of any sort of package management, some more pointing out administrative features of note, and perhaps half a dozen detailing the main interface (which is likely to be an X desktop of some kind).
20 in total would be more than enough, with a navigation system that works.

Re:evolution has already spoken

[CaptainPinko]

The fact that there are losers doesn't mean there are winners.

Re:evolution has already spoken

[mnmn]

The presence of losers define the winners. The presence of the night defines the day. The presence of the 0 defines the 1. The presence of poor define the rich. The presence of Microsoft defines the free software community. The presence of redundant posts define the insightful mods.

I'm tired.

Re:Solaris does have a leg up on Linux

[Xross_Ied]

I have yet to see benchmarks comparing Linux2.6, Solaris10 with BSD variants. Anyone have any links?

Most Oracle installations aren't run on Solaris..
a) Granted larger Oracle installations (8Processors or more) are on SPARC/Solaris.
b) Many small to medium sized installations are run on x86/Linux. Has been this way for a few years now, ever since Oracle started supporting Linux really aggressively.

Solaris's major advantage is standardized kernel, kernel APIs and system libraries.
It allows application developers to better target the platform they want to develop on and support and for how long. In the commercial space this is a big advantage for Solaris.

Where Solaris fails compared to say Redhat (note I am talking about commercial version) is how easy it is to manage the system.
Want to apply the latest patches that have been approved by Redhat?
up2date
For Solaris?
go to sun's site hunt for the right page that will list the latest patch cluster.
verify this patch cluster doesn't break any of your Sun applications (e.g. SunOne messaging 5.2 sp2 has problems with the latest patch cluster for solaris 9).

Why should a user have to hunt for this information?
Why should I have to phone support and have them hunt for it?
Why isn't this information on the patch cluster's download page?
Why doesn't Solaris have a patch management system that covers all Sun products installed on a server?

0.02c

Re:Competion is good for you

[Anonymous Coward]

The freedom point is debatable to the end of time (BSD vs. GPL, blah blah blah), but one thing isn't: documentation. There are excellent books like Solaris Internals, plus docs.sun.com, plus, now, Sun's source code, that just put the scrap pile of Linux FAQs and man/info pages to shame. The reason: Sun for years has written their docs to an audience of $15/hour intern sysadmins, who need a checklist or list of steps immediately to get tasks done. Their set of manuals for Solaris is _enormous_. And it all applies to OpenSolaris, too.

If anything, just the ability of people to learn about Solaris from Sun's documentation could un-seat Linux in the long term. Hell, I passed Sun's own certification exams (sysadmin, networking) just by using their documentation, a couple prep books (for the sample tests and topic lists), and a small network of workstations to play with.

OpenSolaris

[metamatic]

It has poor driver support.

It has System V intellectual property in it, meaning it's legitimately at risk from SCO.

Its license isn't GPL-compatible.

There's no commercial support available for it.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume the bugginess has improved drastically since Solaris 2.6 days. Still, it doesn't seem compelling to me.