Linux is enjoying growth, with a contingent of devotees too large to be called a cult following at this point. Solaris, meanwhile, has thrived as a longstanding, primary Unix platform geared to enterprises. But with Linux the object of all the buzz in the industry, can Sun's rival Solaris Unix OS hang on, or is it destined to be displaced by Linux altogether?
The case for Solaris's demise
Sun officials believe the 16-year-old Solaris platform remains a pivotal, innovative platform. But at the Linux Foundation, there is a no-conciliatory stance; the attitude there is to tell Solaris and Sun to move out of the way. "The future is Linux and Microsoft Windows," says foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. "It is not Unix or Solaris."
Linux is a decent enough operating system for desktop computing (with a distro such as Ubuntu). It however is not an enterprise-class (or enterprise-ready for that matter) Operating system. The sophistication and engineering that has gone into Solaris 10 has put it at least a few generations ahead of any Linux distro out there (with features such as dtrace, FMA, SMF, etc).
I'm afraid Linux just doesn't make the cut for us *NIX administrators. That being said, I'm not against Linux. I encourage the Linux and Opensource community (and am a participant). I just feel that an OpenSolaris variant would be better equipped to handle enterprise workloads. Leave the Desktop to Linux and Mac OS X. Perhaps run some niche apps on Linux (dns servers, dhcp servers, qmail perhaps...even some web servers). I'll never run a data warehouse or an OLTP database that needs to use more than 4 procs.
No matter what the spin on this is...Linux is not UNIX (at least not yet) and it certainly is way inferior to Solaris.
by Implicate_order (not verified) on 9/25/08 at 7:11 am |reply
I'm always have to laugh
I'm always have to laugh when I hear a Linux evangelist claim that Linux is going to replace Unix. Linux is just another Unix variant. It would be accurate to say that Linux poses a threat to COMMERCIAL Unix variants such as Solaris and AIX.
by John Stewart (not verified) on 9/25/08 at 7:40 am |reply
Linux to me looks like
Linux to me looks like another version of Unix. It certainly has mind share--but at the end of the day it is getting splintered. After all you have ubuntu, Suse, and the Red Hat distributions. Binaries compiled for one distribution do not work on other Linux distributions.
My company has found Solaris 10 x86 bundled with Sun's X series servers to have a compelling price/performance story. When developers learn how to write code to effectively use the multithreading capability of the Niagara chip Sun's Solaris for Sparc will gain new life.
by Selwyn Schultz (not verified) on 9/25/08 at 8:33 am |reply
Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
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Quick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.
Linux is a decent enough
Linux is a decent enough operating system for desktop computing (with a distro such as Ubuntu). It however is not an enterprise-class (or enterprise-ready for that matter) Operating system. The sophistication and engineering that has gone into Solaris 10 has put it at least a few generations ahead of any Linux distro out there (with features such as dtrace, FMA, SMF, etc).I'm afraid Linux just doesn't make the cut for us *NIX administrators. That being said, I'm not against Linux. I encourage the Linux and Opensource community (and am a participant). I just feel that an OpenSolaris variant would be better equipped to handle enterprise workloads. Leave the Desktop to Linux and Mac OS X. Perhaps run some niche apps on Linux (dns servers, dhcp servers, qmail perhaps...even some web servers). I'll never run a data warehouse or an OLTP database that needs to use more than 4 procs.
No matter what the spin on this is...Linux is not UNIX (at least not yet) and it certainly is way inferior to Solaris.
I'm always have to laugh
I'm always have to laugh when I hear a Linux evangelist claim that Linux is going to replace Unix. Linux is just another Unix variant. It would be accurate to say that Linux poses a threat to COMMERCIAL Unix variants such as Solaris and AIX.Linux to me looks like
Linux to me looks like another version of Unix. It certainly has mind share--but at the end of the day it is getting splintered. After all you have ubuntu, Suse, and the Red Hat distributions. Binaries compiled for one distribution do not work on other Linux distributions.My company has found Solaris 10 x86 bundled with Sun's X series servers to have a compelling price/performance story. When developers learn how to write code to effectively use the multithreading capability of the Niagara chip Sun's Solaris for Sparc will gain new life.