[geeks] Mac definitions

[Mark Benson]

On 9 Jul 2011, at 21:23, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> I didn't put a reason on it, my point was that there will be/has been a
> precipitous drop in 'casual' users.

You are absolutely on the money, but that's not the fault of expensive/rare
hardware or hard-to-learn OSs though, it's Oracle's fault for putting the can
on the free license for Solaris and also canning OpenSolaris. Both efforts
attracted people to the platform either through buying a cheap Sun workstation
(and there have always been plenty about, mostly U5s, U10s and U30s) or
through using OS on a x86_64 machine and wanting to try it out on 'real' Sun
hardware. All that's gone now - Solaris is in a n ivory tower with no doors at
the ground level for us poor hobbits.

> Certain people (I think) identify with hardware mfgs - for example Apple.
Many
> people used to feel a certain affinity w/Sun, be it because of superior
> HW/software design, anti-Windows/pro-Open Source stance, etc. Now many in
the
> industry are going to start viewing Sun hardware as something you run
Oracle
> on, and Oracle's efforts since the acquisition of Sun have all been
directed
> against the casual, hobbyist user, in direct contradiction to Sun's efforts
> before the buyout.

This is the issue. As I said above they've ivory towered what was one of the
most accessible and fun to play with enterprise environments around. At one
time I had machines running Solaris 7, 9 and 10 and also OS on a Sun 1100z.
These days I never have Sun switched on - I rely on SGI, RS/6000 an DEC gear
for my alt.os kicks.

> My observation/prediction takes nothing away from Solaris/UltraSPARC
hardware,
> it is an aggregation of observable trends and facts.

The hard ware is awesome. That's why, regardless of the situation with the OS,
I'm still reluctant to part with my U60 (I'm planning on selling my 1100z if
anyone wants that though - really nice box for a PC).

I've pulled the plug on Solaris because I can't get a feasible license, not
because I hated it - I *loved* Solaris, especially things like ZFS.

The only reason I haven't switched the U60 on is I like running the right OS
on the right box. Try as I might running BSD or Linux on a Sun workstation
(scratch that I'd never run Linux on one, full stop) feels... I dunno. Wrong.

> Personally, I'm working on getting a V880 at home - I've not given up on
> Solaris (yet).

... and how do you intend to license the OS? Not an accusation, just a genuine
enquiry.

--
Mark Benson

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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."