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

[Gittings, Mark]

	The benefit an end user would get using Solaris, Linux, or any other operating system is completely dependent on the needs of each end user. Solaris (and Linux) is primarily an enterprise operating system. If you're a developer, or performance engineer dtrace helps you identify possible issues with your application or tune your system for optimal performance. Some other benefits of Solaris 10 is ZFS and live upgrade. ZFS simplifies disk and volume management. ZFS is also a 128bit OS so it can support larger files. Live upgrade allows you to specify an alternate boot environment. You can patch or upgrade this alternate boot environment while your system is up. This simplifies the patching and OS upgrades. (Specifically in the enterprise where a reboot is less expensive than a complete outage.) Since S10_u6 snv_62 Solaris supports ZFS boot. This is integrated into Live upgrade. So if you define an alternate boot environment with a ZFS root device, the OS automatically takes a snapshot of your existing boot environment. You then have snapshots and clones of your operating system so you can roll back to earlier releases if necessary. Another benefit to Solaris 10 is zones. Sun has integrated BSD jails into the operating system. At the risk of being cliché zones is a great virtualization tool. You can segregate your environment into separate containers. The benefit to zones over other virtual software is there is only one kernel. With Solaris resource tools you can also limit the memory and cpu each zone uses, so one zone doesn't hog up all the resources. With zones you can also run branded zones. This means you can run Linux natively inside a Solaris 10 zone. I have a hard time comparing Solaris to Linux, but one thing I would assume is Sun has been around for an awful long time and they have spent a lot of money on developing their OS. Because of this they have a very mature and stable operating system, for a low cost of free. As for applications, Solaris and all versions of Linux are *nix variants so you should be able to easily compile any application that was written for this environment. (If you're not familiar with compiling application most applications can be found at sunfreeware.com.) If you're an end user and you want a *nix environment I would probably suggest MacOS. If you're a *nix enthusiast however, Solaris 10 with branded zones is an excellent way to enjoy both without requiring additional resources.

-----Original Message-----
From: ufo-bounces at ufo.chicago.il.us [mailto:ufo-bounces at ufo.chicago.il.us] On Behalf Of Christopher D. Heer
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 1:07 PM
To: UFO Chicago Mailing List
Subject: Re: [UFO Chicago] Solaris 10 vs. Linux: Get the Real TCO Facts (fwd)

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 _______________________________________________
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