Re: HEADSUP: ibcs2 and svr4 compat headed for history

On Saturday 26 Jun 2004 1:59 pm, Miguel Mendez wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jun 2004 13:36:25 +0300
> Alex Keahan <alex_at_hightemplar.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> > Is Solaris/x86 supported by ibcs2 or svr4?   Solaris/x86 is being
> > actively developed by Sun and is far from extinct.
>
> Solaris/x86 is a niche product. And Sun seems to change their mind about
> Sol/x86 every other week.

This used to be the case, but not anymore.   Sun are now fully committed to
expanding the use of Solaris on Intel.


> (They also do that wrt opensourcing java and Solaris)

The Java source code is available.   The source code to Solaris 8 has
also been available for several years now.    Ok, so it's not BSD-licensed,
but it's certainly good enough to find the proper remedy to improve the
failing SVR4 compatibility code instead of axing it.


> > - Latest Java SDKs for Solaris/x86
>
> Use the linux version?

Perhaps.

> > - Forte C/C++ optimising compilers for Solaris/x86 (which may some day
> > be used to compile FreeBSD kernel)
>
> As someone who has used that one, I'd rather use Intel's ICC.  Forte's
> not that a great compiler.

I beg to differ.


> > - Sun ONE servers for Solaris/x86 (e.g. iPlanet LDAP)
>
> Again, Linux versions.

Not everything is available for Linux, you know.


> > - Oracle for Solaris/x86
>
> Same as above.
>
> > - Numerous third-party applications for SCO and Solaris/x86
> > (e.g. backup solutions)
>
> All enterprise apps from Legato/Veritas/whathaveyou have Linux versions.

Not all of them.   My DLT drive came with a CD chock-full of backup software
for HP-UX, AIX and SCO UnixWare, but none for Linux.


> Now, having Solaris compat on *Sparc*, that can be useful

Indeed.   The removal of compat/svr4 and dev/streams will likely preclude
it from ever working on the SPARC platform.


> but on x86?  Not by a long shot.

Yes, on x86.   Call it "niche", but unfortunately Solaris/x86 is the only real
alternative to Linux on SMP hardware at the moment.  As much as I'd love
to use FreeBSD-5 instead, it's just not quite there yet.

Alex