Waaaay OT: OpenSolaris

[Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

From: "Hoover, Tony" <hoover at sal.ksu.edu>
> Just thinking out loud.  With all the hype Sun is throwing into their "open"
> inititive, They haven't ever (to my recollection) stated what advantages (if
> any) solaris has over Linux.  I figured that folks on this list might have
> some compelling answers.   

Well, if you want to talk "hype" on "open" initiatives, hit IBM.
Sun has bested IBM in both GPL and MPL (GPL incompatible) donations.
I know people don't like to hear that, but it's damn true.

It's IBM's "Linux Quiz Show" where people tune in for the money, not
substance.  $1B to mature their hardware line here, $100M to port
a 100% proprietary application to Linux, etc...  Every now and then we
get $40M in some GPL incompatible MPL stuff for Java, and then they
donate GPL to the kernel with patents attached (although the opening
of 500 patents did help, and surprised me, I have to admit that)

Not as good as HP, and I wish Sun would open up like HP has to Linux.
But one of the biggest hypocracies right now is IBM and what most Linux
proponents think of IBM.

If you want an example that will make you rethink IBM.  Read up on
Project Monterey.  It just might make you feel a bit for SCO.  IBM didn't
like the fact that Caldera's acquition of SCO made them a "competitor"
on a dual-UNIX/IA-64 and Linux/x86 front (this was before x86-64,
back in 2000-2001) just 20 days into the purchase.

And the rest is little known history (prior to May 2005, but explains
a lot of the original, March 2005 filing -- especially leading up to
items #50-55).


--
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org