OpenSolaris 2008.5 first impressions

Pretty cool actually....it recognized my intel wireless 4965 immediately and brought up a list of wireless networks, selected mine, and here I am.

Automatically installed the Nvidia driver for me.

What's missing: ACPI driver (can be had elsewhere per site)
Marvel ethernet controller driver, don't know haven't checked (never use it anyway, can wait)

Seems fast and stable. Has a synaptic style package manager.

Intial impressions are that it's deployable....don't know about Bluetooth, but I know VirtualBox works here....it's Sun

All for now...

EDIT: Sound works OTB. still looking....this from LiveCD remember...
Recognized my scanner, printer OTB
Compiz comes with the package
File structure is the same as linux re directory....is this linux? what the heck is it? LOL

If I didn't have so much into Kubuntu, I'd put it to the harddrive....going to read up on it more at forums....the looks are pretty great IMO. Comes with FF 2.0.0.14....need to change those FF fonts though....10 seconds and it looked acceptable with what I had to work with on the liveCD......the system fonts were typical gnome-clean looking.

 

Geez, now I've got to try yet another OS . . . lol

 

I was pleasantly surprised actually, maybe because I expected not much to work so easily.....I'll check their forums....what the heck is it, Java? It seemed very well polished.....had gdesklets preinstalled....pretty much felt like I was in Linux if I wasn't LOL I think I read they were going on 6 month release cycles. I could use this as my main distro, I believe. CPU throttling is achieved by installing a program linked on their website...it's not included yet.

 

ps, Rob....I put a piece of masking tape over that avatar of yours, but when I scroll, it shows back up! LOL!

 

Good lookin' ain't it!

I tried to install Solaris 10 a while back, but, as with Gentoo, couldn't do it (am still trying with Gentoo - with no luck yet LOL).

 

think this one sure wont be a problem!

 

OpenSolaris is not linux at all, although most of the commands are compatible. I have tried it also and it did surprise me! I really didn't expect wireless and nvidia driver work out of the box =)
I am interested in it because it is DIFFERENT from linux (i.e. not just another variant of ubuntu, fedora, suse...)

The Sun Developer Express Edition is also interesting, since it got all the sun compilers(C, C++,java and my favorite FORTRAN) and ide in the box. However, I would recommend solaris (both opensolaris and SDXE) to experienced users only.

 

Solaris is fully unix, no linux in it

 

Sunix? yeah, that's the ticket....=) I like Opensolaris....!

 

I like it also....I still have the disk on my desk, didn't throw it in my distro bin......

 

I downloaded it and it worked fairly well... I'm not what you would call "experienced" in unix or linux. Seems that linux/unix is getting to a point that if you install and use the programs that come with it, it can be a nice experience.

I enjoyed solaris... although it was not enough to get me away from ubuntu...

 

Here I am back in OpenSolaris....darned thing has got into my pysche....trying to find something seriously wrong with it to not install it...I can't yet....! Here's an interesting blog on OpenSolaris:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8703

EDIT: they are working on an OSol BT stack and some other things....BSD's not sure if they will work....it's stable, but I'd say the next release in 6 months would be the one to get serious about....but, if you are a tinkerer and want unix, this is it I think. Just MHO.

 

What kind of power management does Solaris offer? Is it well-refined to the point that it is acceptable for laptop users? A penny for your thoughts on this.

 

I saw power manager in services, however I read on their site somewhere that for now laptop users would need to install a file that is third party and they linked it. I can't find it again, but gave up because I was on the live CD when I did the above post.....something like fkit....I can't answer that right now....they do have forums....this thing is in it's infancy really, but Sun's a pretty good company.

 

^^ I looked into it, and OpenSolaris is just starting to implement Intel's SpeedStep; they call it a "feature." Sad , I'll try Solaris later.

 

Zenwalk had the same thing, but worked great after a couple of command lines....I think I might try to put on a second laptop and see what I can do with it.