NetBSD Announces Sun Hardware Donation 33
Jeremy C. Reed writes "NetBSD announced that Sun donated two machines running Solaris '[i]n order to support and further the development efforts of the NetBSD
Packages team, to promote the build of binary packages for Solaris 8,
Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 and to enhance the support of the Sun Forte
Compiler chain.' The NetBSD Package Collection can be used on many platforms beyond NetBSD
to provide an easy way to
consistently install third-party software and manage packages."
Sun is doing OK if you compare to SGI (Score:2, Interesting)
It's quite nice of SUN to help the BSD folk, though I don't doubt they get more on a tax write-off than they could sell the gear for.
Sun on the right track (Score:5, Interesting)
This is a smart move, on Sun's behalf. Considering the impending release of OpenSolaris, it's important for them to foster more community involvement. What really makes me curious is the choice of NetBSD. Theo DeRaadt (OpenBSD) is (correct me if I'm wrong) a big Sun hardware nut. Nobody that knows better (and holds no other prejudice towards Theo) would accuse him of being a poor coder. I guess maybe Sun thinks that already going to be an OpenSolaris contributor? Or maybe there's been some past heated discussions between he and Sun?
I think FreeBSD may not have been the choice for two reasons: 1) they have relatively new support for Sparcs; 2) they have a more Commercial Appearance than Open or Net.
For you few that think that Sun is going out of business, you should read Yahoo finance once in a while; Sun is apparently quietly positioning themselves to go private (despite McNealy's flimsy denial); this means that, essentially, they have the cash reserves to buy back a significant portion of the outstanding stock. Of course, this all may fall to the ground, but they had a 6% jump on the rumor, which indicates a number of people thought this plausable. The firm that is supposedly helping them do this made major news when they helped Seagate? do the same thing a while back.
Sun has quietly been rebuilding themselves for a while - the acquisition of Cobalt to put them back into the PC architecture; the purchase and subsequent open-sourcing of their grid platform; the purchase and subsequent open-sourcing of OpenOffice; the purchase of NetBeans IDE and the integration of same with the previously-named Forte compiler suite. The forth-coming OpenSolaris. OK, I disagree with the Java-branded Gnome desktop (KDE would have been my preference), but it still beats the hell out of CDE or OpenLook.
I definitely feel something brewing at Sun, something really good. I've even bet money on it by purchasing a block of SUNW. I believe they are going to try to go where Apple hasn't and where MS doesn't want them - straight to the homes of millions.
Re:Sun on the right track (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I gather, this is the minimum I am expecting in the next several years (I am _not_ an insider--this is just speculation based on public information):
- a complete open source platform, from the OpenSolaris kernel (buildable with GCC) up through Java continuing up through all of JES, including an SQL database. All this backed by Sun, as a big axe to the head of
- Subscription-based SunRay desktops delivered to peoples' homes. These would be hosted in a secure Solaris 10 Container, managed within their Grid environment, and delivered over their new SunRay software that can go over broadband. The environment would be GNOME, StarOffice, Mozilla, Evolution, GIMP 2, etc. (all the stuff bundled in JDS). Peripheral support would be through USB, so local printers, etc. should be possible. They would have zero-administration with a 1-800 number to call for support. Buying a computer would finally be like buying a telephone.
- I would expect their Galaxy servers are aiming to crush the benchmarks (anything less would be disappointing, IMO). The leaked specs from a month or so ago put the 8-socket system with 8 or so PCI Express slots. If they are all independent busses, that would make for a 16-core Opteron system in 4U that can push something like 40GB/sec to NICs, direct attached storage, etc. If that wouldn't make for a scary database server, I don't know what would.
- Once all the announced features are shipped for Solaris 10 (ZFS, Janus, e.g.), Sun will probably be the only vendor in the world that can allow sysadmins to really use today's rediculous CPUs in a reliable manner (containers, self healing, ZFS checksums, etc.). If Sun's numbers are right, a single Solaris 10 server could replace several Linux or Windows servers, dividing server rooms by non-trivial factors. It'll be a while before the lightbulb appears above sysadmins' heads everywhere, but the potential savings are too good to ignore. Given that Solaris 10 is free right-to-use, no one else comes close.
- Renting time on the Sun Compute Grid could be huge, once people realize that the cost could easily be put into simple expense reports. In government contracting, it would be a matter of submitting the costs through the appropriate project charge number. This would bypass the rediculous hardware procurement process, which is awful. Of course, for classified work, something else is needed, but imagine a geographically distributed standards development team developing a reference implementation without needing to buy a new server or new storage for the project or having to bother sysadmins with it.
Re:More than just hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
Really? It's of course nice of Sun to do so, but it's not like it's costing Sun $2,995.00 for each copy of software they make and sell themselves. But fear not, the bean counters know how to account for it so the total donation cost Sun just about nothing.