back to article Oracle gives Solaris 11 final spit and polish

Systems maker Oracle is getting out the dogs and ponies and hauling them to New York City for the official launch of the long-awaited Solaris 11 operating system next week. The operating system, formerly known by the internal code-name "Nevada" when it was under development at the former Sun Microsystems, is not coming out at …

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  1. Marco van de Voort

    openslowaris

    If they open up a new opensolaris, at least its ZFS implementation will see many x86 based systems

  2. David Kelly 2

    I forgot why I should care?

    OK, Solaris 11 is coming out. Its said to be 1.0 better than 10 and incompatible with older hardware. Why is it better than 10? Or are we to take Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap at his word that 11 is better than 10?

    1. Billl
      WTF?

      I forgot why I should care?

      You're right, You shouldn't care. So, why are you commenting if you don't care again?

  3. dpickens
    Thumb Down

    You say "So basically any processor chip that Sun made excepting the Sparc T series is kaput as far as Solaris 11 is concerned."

    What about SPARC V, V+, VI, VI+ systems?

    Looks like Solaris 11 runs on anything made after 2003 or there about.

    Try running Windows 7 on something from 2005... or AIX 5.3 ... or HP-UX 11... or Redhat 6... Not reading articles about this...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Actually AIX 5.3 will run on a POWER3 system... a RS/6000 44p 270 for example which was released in 2000.

      OK you're not going to be running many applications on such a system these days but the OS will boot and run quite happily.

      Of course with AIX 6.1 you're completely out of luck as that requires POWER4 or higher.

    2. Lance 3

      Umm, no. Sun was still selling V-series in early 2009. The V490 used the IV/IV+ processors which Solaris 11 won't support. So anything sold in late 2009 or later is supported, not the 2003 you have listed.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The V490 2100 GA's in 2007, last ship date April 2009, so it is a fairly quick obsolescence. To be fair, if you were buying a V490 in 2009, it was probably because you needed to run Solaris 8 or 9 due to application compatibility reasons; the M4000 GA'd in October 2007, the M3000 in December 2008.

        When you add in that most shops won't even look to deploy Solaris 11 for another 6 months, it's not likely to be that big a problem for most people.

        Finally, all the US-IV & earlier kit has an end of support date of 2014 or earlier; it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to upgrade your OS when it's just going to be out of mainline support in 3 years...

    3. tpm (Written by Reg staff)

      Re:

      Sun didn't make those chips, and hasn't said jack about what old Sparc64 series chips from Fujitsu will be supported. Or not.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Fujitsu did not make the CPUs found in any Sun V-series machines. Fujitsu SPARC64 family CPUs are only found in PRIMEPOWER and the more recent SPARC Enterprise M-series machines.

    4. Davidoff
      WTF?

      "Try running Windows 7 on something from 2005"

      Runs fine on a HP P4 1.7GHz from 2001, and even better on a Dell P4 from 2005.

      "... or AIX 5.3"

      Runs fine on a 44P-170 from 2000.

      "or HP-UX 11"

      Runs fine on a HP9000 B180L from 1997.

      And your point was?

    5. Alain

      HP-UX 11 on old iron

      Last time I've checked, HP-UX 11 was perfectly happy on a 2002 vintage Superdome.

      1. John 62
        Windows

        Any old iron?

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTB8l8aNOi4

    6. Jesper Frimann
      Trollface

      Check your facts.

      Actually AIX 5.3 runs on Common Hardware Reference Platform (CHRP) machines. This includes old machines that are RS64 based and even 604e based machines like the F50.

      Come on now..

      // Jesper

  4. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Devil

    Just popped in . . .

    . . . to check on the frothing Matt Bryant hate-fest. Disappointed so far. Maybe he can't get his hate on for Oracle like he did for Sun?

    1. cocknee
      Pirate

      re just popped in

      i was expecting a trolling from him by now. Maybe he's still sending Meg begging emails to keep H-POX going when Intel lowers the final lifeboat on iTanic.

  5. Dr. Mouse

    "It will be interesting to see if Oracle can get Solaris 11 on a wide selection of x86-based servers, too."

    Well, I know they need to validate it etc, but I have been running Solaris 11 Express on a converted desktop for a while now as a test bed, with no issues. I have to say I love it.

    "If they open up a new opensolaris"

    I have heard they will be releasing source after they release 11 in full, so it should give a boost to the Solaris-based systems (Nexenta etc.) and other ZFS implementations.

    1. tranzophobia

      Solaris on x86?

      "It will be interesting to see if Oracle can get Solaris 11 on a wide selection of x86-based servers, too."

      I struggle to understand why Oracle would really want to push this on x86 if their preferred option is OVM. I would be worried about deploying Solaris on x86 as I see no commitment from Oracle on this combination over the long term.

      1. David Halko
        Happy

        @tranzophobia - Solaris on x86?

        tranzophobia writes, "I struggle to understand why Oracle would really want to push this on x86 if their preferred option is OVM. I would be worried about deploying Solaris on x86 as I see no commitment from Oracle on this combination"

        The combination has been supported for awhile and Oracle published their reasoning:

        http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/solaris-098101.html

        "For customers facing challenging business and technical requirements - such as lowering costs, simplifying system administration, and maintaining high service levels - the Oracle Solaris Operating System is the ideal cross-platform choice... The Oracle VM Templates for Oracle Solaris can be used to rapidly provision new virtual machines running Oracle Solaris OS on x86 platforms."

        If Oracle x86 was not going to be supported for the long term, Oracle would have killed it, already, when they killed off other Sun products, during the acquisition.

        The staying-power looks pretty good. The announcement on the 9th will help solidify it.

      2. King1Con
        Facepalm

        RE: Solaris on x86? yep...

        tranz -I struggle to understand why Oracle would really want to push this on x86 if their preferred option is OVM

        Because OVM is a virtualisation technology that supports operating systems like Solaris x86

        tranz - worried about deploying Solaris on x86 as I see no commitment from Oracle on this combination

        the sky might fall, too. better find an underground bunker.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Markus who?

    Markus who? I work on Solaris at Oracle and I've never heard of him...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'm not sure what your point is, but he does work for Fowler in Solaris. Is your point that you are not involved enough in Solaris Eng to know the players?

  7. Kebabbert

    Hallelujah

    Can you say: Amen? :o)

  8. Dave 13
    FAIL

    Sosueme

    Larry killed Solaris with his insane support pricing increases and the bullet he put in OpenSolaris' head. Good luck with Solaris 11, most customers are running away from Oracle as fast as they can.

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