Prev: Anyone have a date for the next OpenSolaris ?
Next: UX:lp: ERROR: The LP print service could not read your request
From: Dave on 29 Nov 2009 11:07
There are basically 4 current Solaris operating systems?

* Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
* Solaris 10 on x86 processors
* OpenSolaris on SPARC processors
* OpenSolaris on x86 processors.

how do they compare in popularity?

I assume it fairly safe to assume that OpenSolaris on SPARC is less popular than
OpenSolaris on x86, but I'm less sure how the others rank.

I guess Solaris 10 is more popular on SPARC than x86, but maybe that is not true.


--
I respectfully request that this message is not archived by companies as
unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
'Experts Exchange' take questions posted on the web and try to find
idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
by others. They are leeches.
From: John D Groenveld on 29 Nov 2009 12:01
In article <4b129c58(a)212.67.96.135>, Dave <foo(a)coo.com> wrote:
>There are basically 4 current Solaris operating systems?
>
> * Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
> * Solaris 10 on x86 processors
> * OpenSolaris on SPARC processors
> * OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
>
>how do they compare in popularity?

My wild-assed guess is that it is heavily dependent on the
business sector and the application.

For instance, you can look at your web server's agent_log's
or its Google Analytics numbers but I suspect browsers on
stationary and mobile developer workstations are mostly x86
running Indiana/Nevada.
Obviously that doesn't really help you when you're trying
gauge how large a barrier an OpenSolaris dependency might
place on the usage of your sage-math bits inside data centers.

Netcraft's numbers, particularly the .EDU industry numbers
might be a bit more helpful, but I think you have to pay
for that level of detail.

My WAG is that OpenSolaris is not a major barrier for your
potential users, but I didn't attend Sun's HPC consortium
meeting at Super Computing this year so I'm only surmising
from my tiny little corner of the world.

Sun's HPC marketing wonks host user group meetings in Europe.
I suggest you join that community if you haven't already.
<URL:http://hpc.sun.com/>

You might find some folks there willing to donate you zones
on their various systems for your porting and benchmarking
efforts.

Happy hacking,
John
groenveld(a)acm.org
From: Canuck57 on 29 Nov 2009 12:57
Dave wrote:
> There are basically 4 current Solaris operating systems?
>
> * Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
> * Solaris 10 on x86 processors
> * OpenSolaris on SPARC processors
> * OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
>
> how do they compare in popularity?
>
> I assume it fairly safe to assume that OpenSolaris on SPARC is less
> popular than OpenSolaris on x86, but I'm less sure how the others rank.
>
> I guess Solaris 10 is more popular on SPARC than x86, but maybe that is
> not true.

My guess for business is:

1) Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
2) Solaris 10 on x86 processors
3) OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
4) OpenSolaris on SPARC processors (and could be near zero)

For hobbiests and at home:

1) Solaris 10 on x86 processors
2) OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
3) Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
4) OpenSolaris on SPARC processors (and could be near zero)

In each case, the top 2 represent 98% of the cases.

The best thing about Solaris on AMD/intel is simple, you can learn
skills that port well to big iron. Even develop nice apps on x86 and
port to Sparc for the business side.

I also suspect x86 for business servers is also growing at Sun, or
fairing better than Sparc as a percentage of sales.
From: Richard B. Gilbert on 29 Nov 2009 13:05
Dave wrote:
> There are basically 4 current Solaris operating systems?
>
> * Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
> * Solaris 10 on x86 processors
> * OpenSolaris on SPARC processors
> * OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
>
> how do they compare in popularity?
>
> I assume it fairly safe to assume that OpenSolaris on SPARC is less
> popular than OpenSolaris on x86, but I'm less sure how the others rank.
>
> I guess Solaris 10 is more popular on SPARC than x86, but maybe that is
> not true.
>
>

I think popularity is not terribly important. It does matter, big time,
that the O/S runs on your hardware and supports most peripherals. It
matters that the system can get your work done in a reasonable amount of
time. Whether "reasonable" means seconds, minutes, or hours depends on
both your needs and your budget.

It also matters that the O/S is reasonably free of bugs and security
vulnerabilities.
From: Dave on 29 Nov 2009 15:01
Canuck57 wrote:
> Dave wrote:
>> There are basically 4 current Solaris operating systems?
>>
>> * Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
>> * Solaris 10 on x86 processors
>> * OpenSolaris on SPARC processors
>> * OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
>>
>> how do they compare in popularity?
>>
>> I assume it fairly safe to assume that OpenSolaris on SPARC is less
>> popular than OpenSolaris on x86, but I'm less sure how the others rank.
>>
>> I guess Solaris 10 is more popular on SPARC than x86, but maybe that
>> is not true.
>
> My guess for business is:
>
> 1) Solaris 10 on SPARC processors

My feeling is that would be top too.

> 2) Solaris 10 on x86 processors
> 3) OpenSolaris on x86 processors.
> 4) OpenSolaris on SPARC processors (and could be near zero)

My feeling that would be bottom too.

> For hobbiests and at home:
>
> 1) Solaris 10 on x86 processors
> 2) OpenSolaris on x86 processors.

I would have thought that OpenSolaris (on x86) is much more popular for
home/hobbyists than Solaris 10 on x86, simply because OpenSolaris has a better
desktop experience and better support for drivers for commodity x86 hardware.

I guess if your reason for running Solaris is to learn something that you might
be able to use for employment, Solaris 10 would be a better choice, but then I
would have thought it better to buy a SPARC in that case.

> 3) Solaris 10 on SPARC processors
> 4) OpenSolaris on SPARC processors (and could be near zero)

Yes, I get the feeling that OpenSolaris on SPARC is near zero.


> In each case, the top 2 represent 98% of the cases.
>
> The best thing about Solaris on AMD/intel is simple, you can learn
> skills that port well to big iron. Even develop nice apps on x86 and
> port to Sparc for the business side.



> I also suspect x86 for business servers is also growing at Sun, or
> fairing better than Sparc as a percentage of sales.

Probably true, as performance per � is better. It's a shame for Sun, as I'm led
to believe the profit on x86 is small compared to SPARC. That said, judging by
the amount of money Sun wanted for RAM and disks for my Ultra 27 (Intel Xeon),
was it any surprise I bought it with 500 GB disk and 2 GB RAM? (I did consider
buying with no disk or RAM, but thought that would be more difficult if a
warranty issue arose).

I bought the other 10 GB from Crucial, and the enterprise grade disks elsewhere,
for a hell of a lot less than Sun wanted for them.


--
I respectfully request that this message is not archived by companies as
unscrupulous as 'Experts Exchange' . In case you are unaware,
'Experts Exchange' take questions posted on the web and try to find
idiots stupid enough to pay for the answers, which were posted freely
by others. They are leeches.
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Prev: Anyone have a date for the next OpenSolaris ?
Next: UX:lp: ERROR: The LP print service could not read your request