Does it fly? (Solaris 10, that is)

It's now been a couple of weeks since I first logged onto my x86PC version of Solaris 10. My initial thoughts about it have been definitely upheld. Solaris 10 combines the best tradition of SunOS features with the front end of Gnome and versatility of open source tools. And that's to describe it purely from the end-user perspective, without considering all those revolutionary new OS features.
I've got the feeling that Linux will now have to try harder to competing with it in a commercial environment.
For anybody trying to find alternative to Windows on PC, Linux should remain the first choice. Mostly because it managed to establish itself in that niche, with the selection of boxed versions available in high street shops, and a decent range of publications and magazines also readily available. I reckon Sun are not trying to enter that market (yet ?). Instead, Solaris 10 is probably aimed at reducing, or indeed eliminating, the migration from Solaris to Linux on Sparcs.
In any case, Intel version still needs polishing. Solaris 10 is much, much slicker than the ill-fated Solaris 8 for Intel ever was: the driver support is substantially richer, the front end, application choice, installation - all of those aspects have been improved. It does, however, still have some niggling problems with the detail, especially in the area of the bootstrap, the PC implementation of the extended Sparc keyboard functionality, modern devices, etc.
But, I do like it - this is the first time in good 10 years, or more, where Sun have produced a new, fresh and exciting OS product.

Downloads - never again!

I now remember why I tend to go for boxed versions of things. The download of 4 ISO CDs for Intel took the entire weekend of starting, restarting, and going to the beginning again. Tried various download managers (Linux and XP, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox) including Sun's own (SunDM) - which they recommend you download (!) first, but all of them keep failing in a curious manner. You watch the transfer speed, it will drop down to a trickle, then go to 0kbs. That's it. WHY? The connection is active, you can still use the Internet and download other things! No Pause/Resume Start/Restart, etc helps. Needed to stop the whole thing, start from scratch and hope it completes next time.

Anyway, enough moaning...

Bought myself a new Nero box (could have downloaded it ;-) and burned the 4 disks, so - install time (whilst the download battle of 4 discs for my Ultra5 Sparc machine began).

I tried the install on an old HP Vectra with P700 and 128 MB RAM. It used to be plenty for Linux...
The install went remarkably smoothly, although I am greatly disappointed with the required interaction. I was hoping that Sun would simplify this - can't imagine a non-techie wanting to tackle it. Then again, I suppose Solaris is not really destined for a non-techie user...

However, when we get to use it for our generic UNIX admin courses (notice when, rather than if) our engineers will absolutely hate the install procedure.

# TODO - Check the 'jumpstart' on this version.

Next step - start playing...

Give me speed!!

Started the download of Solaris 10. Had to register first - fairly painless, with less information requested of me than I expected. The licence arrived by e-mail promptly, and the download of 4 CDs was started. I could do with a lot faster connection though. We do have broadband, but because we are within only just acceptable distance from the exchange, the speed is awful!
Anyway, it took 1hr20min for CD1 (318MB). And it is the smallest iso out of the 4!
Good job Lima November is going its annual CofA service, so no flying today.
Hopefully, by the end of the weekend I will have all the software ready for playing.

There is that buzz in the air

Well, I have been teaching Unix for more years that I care to record. When Linux came along, I thought - wow, finally something fresh and exciting on the horizon! In the classroom, I continued commenting how Unix people will have to pull their socks up, or Linux will push them all out of the market.

Now I'm being asked to do some work with Soalris 10, and my jaw is dropping.
Fresh? Exciting? Well, it appears the most revolutionary Unix release since the epoch (1/1/70 ;-)). Need to play with it a lot more to have a more informed and qualified opinion, but for the first time in a decade Linux appears to have a competition!

Intend to use this blog for recording all sorts of stuff, although I must admit, I need to learn how to drive it (in terms of making the best of the technology, but also in how to choose the expressive methods, so that I don't violate any copyrights, offent unintentionally, etc.). Those that know me will understand what I'm on about - my mouth processes are normally faster than those inside my brain...