Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 14:53:31 -0400 From: Brian McGovern <bmcgover@cisco.com> To: otterr@telocity.com, fionv@spots.ab.ca Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: SOLARIS vs. FreeBSD Message-ID: <200006271853.OAA00559@bmcgover-pc.cisco.com>
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Disclaimer: I have _not_ played with Solaris 8 on Sparc, only on x86. So far, due to their crappy install program, I got one machine limping along enough to make the rest of my comments. I will also state that this is not from a lack of time spent trying. >> Solaris 8 is now "open" and free. Sun told me that it is the superior UNIX >> of all UNICES--to end all UNICES! (--to that effect) > >of course they'll tell you that. it's called "marketing" and "sales" Solaris 8 , particularly for x86, is superior to squat, except maybe Solaris 7. >> Linux will gradually fade away, leaving BSD; > >Honestly, I don't see Linux fading away. Even though many look to Linux as >competition for FreeBSD, we're all working toward the same >goal: reliable open source software. I agree with this somewhat. I'd like to hope the Linux camp consolidates some of their releases, and puts some effort in to making a better install. But, thats a future issue. >> but now Solaris is free--won't that "crush" BSD? Won't everyone flock to >> Solaris? > >No. it might be free *cough* $75 *cough* but it's still not open source, >which is the desired choice for many. Solaris isn't going to provide you >with all the tools to hack away on their applications. With open source, >you have that option. I may use Solaris at times, but it's not my OS of >choice. I bought Solaris 8 for work. I've had it for the better part of a month. So far, it is running on exactly zero (0) machines. Most of the times I tried playing with it, the installation became so F'ed up with silly little things that I just backed out until I had more time to play with it. It had problems with some Ethernet cards, _really_ had problems on some machines with dual on-board primary and secondary IDE controllers, problems with dual booting, and the like. Basically, Solaris is better than HP/UX and AIX, but, when compared to FreeBSD, or even Linux, I think its pure and utter crap. Sun is supposed to be releasing "Free" Source this summer (probably a $150 media fee), so this may make it better. But right now (at least on x86), they do _not_ have a competitive product that I'd base my IS infrastructure on. [If any Solaris engineers are in Burlington, give me a shout. I'll be more than happy to give a _long_ list of complaints that need to be fixed]. >> --D Viglione, very confused student who wants to have faith in BSD, again. >> >> I got the impression from Sun that they have never heard of FreeBSD! > > who did you talk to at Sun? Someone in the mail room? > I could comment along the lines of that may be where Sun got some of its decision makers from, but that'd be rude. However, I suspect this may be marketing again. Put on your blinders, pretend nothing else exists, tell your customers this, tell them that the only "supported" platform is the one you want to sell them, and guess what happens? You make money until people wake up. Then, you go out of business. >>Does that mean FreeBSD is not good enough for large corporations? >> >Look on the FreeBSD website. There's a link to a bunch of companies and >individuals who use FreeBSD. You will recognize some of the names. > Unfortunately, the people who hold the purse strings are usually those who make technical decisions based on the advertisements they see on TV. I could give a small list of companies where I've worked where the infrastructre was a hodge podge of leftovers from the company's "technological eras" (ie - as one CIO left, and another came in). Since FreeBSD doesn't run ads on PBS, they're not likely to consider it "nifty" enough to use. However, when I'm given the ability to choose my solution for projects, I almost always head to FreeBSD _first_, and I'm in the #2 market cap company in the world ;) I can also honestly say that management more than 2 levels above me never knew what was running things, but they always knew it worked. So, in the end, given that I work daily with almost every flavor of Unix out there, FreeBSD is _the_ best for x86. And, for the money, I still think dollar for dollar that x86-based systems are more efficient (ie - bigger bang for the buck). After all, for a $30,000 multi-processor workstation with a few gig of RAM (we just bought 3 of them), I can buy 10 top-of-the-line PCs. -Brian To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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