James Duncan Davidson (who used to work at Sun) has some thoughts on where solaris was as a server OS, and where it is going:
The really bad thing is that its all working a hell of a lot better on Windows. It's really sad. This means that even though Solaris is a better server OS than Windows, it's becoming harder to build next gen apps on top of. This isn't good for Sun.Developers are working on laptops today, but the lackluster server apps that James is talking about were developed over the last few years. The decline and lack of support for Solaris x86 may be a contributing factor, but I doubt that the scarcity of Solaris x86 on laptops has much to do with it. Three years ago, I was working in a shop developing web-apps on Solaris, yet most of the developers were using Linux. As far back as 1997 or so, Linux desktops and *NIX servers were a viable and economical way to set up a development team.One theory that I have to explain this: Most developers are working on laptops these days. And that means that they are running Linux or Windows. Solaris x86 on a laptop? Hah! Sun never put any effort into that, and they may be reaping the seeds of that decision now.
James is certainly onto something. Developers have been favoring Linux/*BSD on the desktop and on laptops for years now. Linux/*BSD is a viable desktop, laptop and server platform. The lackluster uptake of Solaris x86 has certainly fueled this trend.
(And now for the $64 question: What does this mean for Apple, vendor of two of the most popular laptops in use today?)
Re: The future of Solaris
nicholas on 2002-11-07T13:45:46
Well, now that the movie is coming out, maybe there'll be a revival.Starting in about 10 years time?
:-(
(Given that Sun was founded in 1982 and the original movie of the Stanislaw Lem novel came out in 1972. Oooh. Shiny. IMDB gives the name in Cyrillic: Солярис)I wonder if the Hollywood adaptation is going to be any less depressing or any easier to follow than then novel or Tarkovsky's movie. It's Hollywood - I guess I know the answer already.
Re: The future of Solaris
ziggy on 2002-11-07T14:08:56
Well, it's Hollywood and George Clooney. I'm guessing that they'll focus on the love story instead of the planet. (That's what the preview commercials are focusing on.)I wonder if the Hollywood adaptation is going to be any less depressing or any easier to follow than then novel or Tarkovsky's movie. It's Hollywood - I guess I know the answer already.Hollywood has taken liberties before with classic Sci-fi and made decent movies, even if they weren't true to the original book. Blade Runner comes to mind, as does Total Recall. (I haven't read or seen Minority Report yet.) I'm still holding some hope out for Solaris.
