[wellylug] Trying Solaris

[Rob Giltrap]

I've been using Linux for about 8 years now having gone from Caldera -> 
Mandrake -> RedHat -> Fedora -> Ubuntu -> JDS

What *nix experience I have comes predominantly from Linux even though 
in a work capacity I have been involved with Sun for 5 years.

I have played with Sol8, Sol 9 and Sol 10 but they were all a bit fiddly 
for me to get going on my x86 kit relying on my limted linux skills. 
However, that has all changed for me.

I have been playing with the Solaris 10 Update 1 (1/06) which was 
officially released today (though I've been playing with pre-releases 
for a couple of weeks) and it is a breeze.

This update now includes...

- The current Xorg X11R6.8.2 Release
- It comes with most of the latest binary graphic drivers installed (and 
nVidia are proving updates pretty quick now 
http://www.nvidia.com/object/solaris_display_1.0-8175.html)
- It includes many device drivers including the highly common realtek 
ethernet
- GRUB is now the default boot loader (hooray!)
- It's got a highly stable Gnome (True it's only 2.6 but you can get 
2.12 off www.blastwave.org if you want it)
- You can easily set bash (or other) as your preferred shell (the 
default is still 'sh')

There are still a few things a modern linux user could consider 'clunky' 
in the setup but it's pretty easy to follow.

So all you need is a spare partition on your hardrive and away you go.

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/get.jsp

The best thing I'm doing on it at the moment is that I'm using a dual 
headed setup in my office running off the Xorg process and then I have a 
couple of Sun Rays 
(http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SunRay150/SunRay150.html) 
hooked up for the family running via the Xsun process. Three computers 
for the price of one ;-)

Now I'm going to have a crack at loading it onto my Toshiba notebook.

Cheers, Rob.