[ILUG] UNIX conventions...

[Hary Walsh]

>>>>> "kevin" == kevin lyda <kevin at suberic.net> writes:

    kevin> if the free software community could do it in the past five
    kevin> years - in multiple directions no less - why can't sun?

One minute here.  I thought one of the major praises of 'open
source'[tm] software was that a closed development model cannot
achieve the same results in the same time frame.  Things are coming
full circle if you ask me.  Sun have done so much work for free
software.  NFS, RPC, OpenLook. 

I'm not refuting your argument here at all.  I'm just defending sun.
They put an awful lot of engineering effort into Solaris.  Backwards
compatibility is such an important issue to them.  I've seen many an
'experienced' Linux user avoid doing an upgrade from Redhat 5 to
Redhat 6 because of the complexities involved.  With Solaris, upgrades 
nearly always work.  They are reliable to the point that our sysadm of 
a 200 node network doesn't have a problem with doing it.  Granted
there are teething problems, but Sun is an engineering quality
operating system.  Don't get me wrong here, I love linux and sing it's 
praises when I can, but comparing Linux and Solaris isn't fair.  There 
are different forces driving their developments.  Solaris is the
leader in the enterprise server market.  It's there for good reasons.
Sun don't take risks with hot new technologies that haven't been tried 
and tested.  They understand their customers needs.  I've installed
KDE here, and even though a lot of people use it, most engineers
aren't interested in desktops etc..  sun customers are feverishly
loyal to sun in general.. because they can trust them and rely on the
operating system...

When Linux didn't have a desktop, it was one it's good points.
Now we've all these new fangled guis that aren't anywhere near as
consitent in feel or useablity as Windows or the Mac, and suddenly
desktops are something all Unixes should have.  Linux is starting to
get too bulky if you ask me... 


--
hjw