What is Solaris? (Tech heads)

For, you non-techies out there, it is a UNIX-based operation system. (UNIX history) Of course, you might wonder what UNIX is. Think of UNIX as command-line shell (DOS). If the term command-line shell doesn't help or if you don't remember DOS, there isn't too much I can do. ;-)

Usually, UNIX is used by techies and geeks. It provides an unparalled amount of flexibility and power. The problem lies, of course, in harnessing that power. That's the hard part. UNIX should not be used by anyone who is timid or afraid. It is for the fearless (or those who don't mind losing their HD by an invalid partition table). Put it this way: master the GUI, then you can think about ruling CUI.

Techies:

• Version: 2.6 (Installed Solaris 7 - it blew up on me - yuck!)
• Synopsis: Damn, boys and girls. Solaris is from Sun - the Java people. Never thought they could do an OS. However, they do a pretty fine job. Hardware support is majorly lacking, but if you are fortunate to hardware on the HCL, this is one sweet operating system.

Advantages:

1. Fast, reliable, fairly stable.
2. Sun's implementation of CDE rules.

Problems:

1. PPP. How do I get CHAP authentication working with pppd? I put the necessary info into /etc/ppp/chap-secrets. It connects to my ISP, but then hangs up. Am I missing something here?
2. File manager wackiness. Doesn't seem polished at all. Especially when deleting files. No feedback from the program as to the progress of the delete. Had it crash a couple of times (maybe the / fs was outta space?).
3. Scrolling back commands with the default shell? I've seen this before, but I am utterly clueless as how to do this. Maybe I need to switch from sh to bash or something like that.
4. I also have a philosophical problem with the current Solaris situation. At times, I feel that Sun deliberately degrades Solarix/x86 in favor of their SPARCs. Yes, I know that Sun wants to increase the sales of their SPARC processors (which aren't bad), but hardly anything else runs on them (some LINUX derivants are making their way to SPARCs, but still...). If Solaris wishes to take over the world (worse OSes could), they need to improve their driver support on x86 and maintain this current level of support for the x86. Also, I don't believe that the SPARCs will overtake the Intel chips anytime soon. Sun should learn from the mistake of Apple - stop hardware development and focus on software development. This marketplace will not support a monopoly (a duopoly - yes, monopoly - no). Regardless of whether Sun wants to believe it or not, the majority of users use Intel chips. IMHO, that's the real reason why they are running the "free" promotion - lure the driver developers with copies. Soon as there is a critical mass of drivers, I think they'll stop the promotion. That'd deprive the majority of techies of a good (with the potential to be great) OS.

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