blogs.sun.com — The founder of Debian GNU/Linux, chair of the Linux Standards Base and outgoing CTO of the Linux Foundation, Ian Murdock has joined Sun Microsystems as Chief Operating Platforms Officer. Sun's Chief Open Source Officer announced the news on his blog today.
Mar 19, 2007 View in Crawl 4
jellygraphMar 19, 2007
I hope this isn't like an Oracle-attempt-to-f**k-with-Linux (which failed anyways)I have some respect for Sun, but I don't trust them completelyBut they did open Java...
freddfxMar 19, 2007
that was daniel robbins, founder of Gentoo
ghardingMar 19, 2007
Oracle was just trying to f**k with Redhat. Sun is in a different league. I don't think anything bad will come of it.
natalicMar 19, 2007
Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe now Sun's Solaris will be better...Because I used it and it was not that great.
raynevandunemMar 19, 2007
No, that was, allegedly, Eric Raymond.<a class="user" href="http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Microsoft_tries_to_recruit_me_Very_funny_response">http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Microsoft_tries_to_recruit_me_Very_funny_response</a>EDIT: Well, Daniel *was* hired. Eric turned - no, SLAMMED - the offer down with considerably ill, exclaimingly public feeling.
gclefMar 19, 2007
Which is what I use Solaris for...but we're moving away from it at my office in favor of Linux, for a few reasons: 1) Many libraries and applications that are simple package installs on Linux become week-long compile-and-dependency hells on Solaris. (eg: Installing trac on solaris was a real mess.) 2) Sun's really annoying tendency to re-do GNU tools themselves, but with slightly different interfaces (Sun's tar is different than the GNU tar, SUN's sed is different than the GNU sed). Lots of packages assume GNU tools, so I then have to fight the existing ones (SUNs packages need their sed, but other installs need the GNU one, so my path keeps changing...gah) to get installs done.3) Performance. The common feeling is that Sun is all about big iron and heavy lifting...problem is, it isn't always true. Example: we have a syslog app that's seeing hundreds-to-thousands of messages a second (yes, that's a lot of data). Our apps to process those on Solaris couldn't get past about 400 messages a second. On a similar-priced x86 box with Debian, it'll hit 4000-or-so events per second. I've been managing Sun boxes for years now, but honestly, it's not worth it anymore...For us, Debian x86 boxes are kicking Sun's butt (which might go some way to explaining their hire of this guy).
raynevandunemMar 20, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki">http://www.gnusolaris.org/gswiki</a>
jakethecakeMar 20, 2007
<a class="user" href="http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2007/03/19/murdock_sun/">http://redmonk.com/sogrady/2007/03/19/murdock_sun/</a> FAQ :D
dragMar 21, 2007
Ya the best thing that Sun can do right now is ship GNU+Debian-based userland on OpenSolaris.It seems that is the way they want to go. Debian already is a very complete package with strong policies that make sense as well as a high degree of quality control. Also it's not associated with either Redhat or Suse, which Sun wants to compete against. And this is probably one of the most important considurations.If they end up getting a very good OpenSolaris/Debian port going that would pretty much solve all of Sun's software compatability problems. Then the choices for admins would be between the relative merits of Linux vs Solaris rather then being forced to choose either platform based on the software compatability requirements.Keep in mind that Debian already has non-Linux ports, namely Debian-ized versions of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and Hurd. (although these are not nearly as complete and are not remotely as popular as Linux-based Debian)The downside (for Sun) is that Debian are licensing nazis, so legal wise Sun needs to prove beyond a doubt that they are a Free software company if they want the attention of Debian developers, unless they want to go it alone. Seems like the move to GPL Java and move to go with the GPLv3 license for Sun is a good way to accomplish that.