[UFO Chicago] Solaris 10 vs. Linux: Get the Real TCO Facts (fwd)

[Christopher D. Heer]

On Fri, March 27, 2009 9:08 am, Neil R. Ormos wrote:

> What nobody's been able to explain, either at the
> meeting or in the prior thread, is what should
> motivate an end user who now uses Linux, BSD, Mac
> OS X, or the like, to try Solaris for their
> personal computing, and what pitfalls and missing
> links should such user expect to encounter.  An
> example of the latter might be a missing class of
> applications, such as media players, or some such
> (but I'm not suggesting that there is in fact a
> lack of such applications for Solaris).  Although
> I'm sure I could do a few hours of research and
> find out, if there were features with significant
> end-user benefits, someone familiar with Solaris
> should be able to offer a list of them with a
> brief explanation of those benefits.

As someone who is much more the novice when it comes to these OSes, I too
am interested.

I come from a DOS/Windows background, mainly.  My first foray into an
open-source OS was Linux, because (A) the (apparently) large user base,
and (B) distros like Ubuntu that attempt to make it easier for someone
like me.

Having said that, I've got a few older boxes lying around and I'm tempted
to try BSD and others, but I'm curious as to what it is the proponents of
BSD, Solaris, etc. really like over Debian-based Linux, or even Linux in
general.

What's the hardware/driver situation like?  I'm thinking of things like
printers, scanners, and even video...is this relatively painless these
days?

I'll do some digging on my own, because now I'm really curious, but I'd be
open to thoughts from the veterans.
-- 
  Christopher D. Heer -- cheer at heerfamily.net