__/ [ [H]omer ] on Tuesday 24 April 2007 08:13 \__
> I thought I'd see how our GPL-hating friends over at Sun were
> progressing with their "operating system of choice", so I downloaded
> Belenix to check it out.
>
> Boot takes about 7 minutes. You get a nice yellow picture of a cartooney
> Sun character, dropping to a console with "Welcome to SunOS".
>
> After a while you're presented with a Curses interface (hmm, very
> passée), asking for a keyboard language layout, and which DE you'd like
> (XFCE or KDE). I chose KDE for the hell of it. I would have preferred
> Gnome, but ... oh well.
>
> I briefly see a message to the effect of "Starting X (keeping fingers
> crossed)". Ahem, yes ... quite. The screen blinks, briefly giving that
> familiar X11 meshed grey default background from days of Yore, then KDE
> appears.
>
> It's a bit basic looking, and the fonts and icons are God-awful, colours
> too, but fundamentally this is just GNU ... with an anti-GPL kernel
> underneath, and some POSIX core utilities. I noted with interest that
> they are at least using udev. Ooh ... progress.
>
> At some point I try to switch to another root console, but I'm
> disappointed to discover that CTRL-ALT-FN<N> does nothing. Oh well, it
> was worth a try, I suppose.
>
> Sound, video, mouse, keyboard, optical drive, and HDD all work.
> Networking doesn't, and not for the lack of a driver, but because it's
> just not set up. I try the KDE panel, and a couple of other gooey config
> tools ... all complain about something along the lines of "your setup is
> not supported" and gives a list of those that are. The list comprises a
> slew of Linux distros. Solaris is not mentioned. I resort to the
> console, and a "Welcome to Belenix" document. It all looks a bit
> prehistoric. The doc harps on about setting up a static IP, and suggests
> a command and a particular config file. I try it, but it seems to be
> nothing more than a list of ... something, drivers perhaps ... who
> knows. All the usual Linux configs that I'm used to, are just not there.
> I find myself actually lost. Scary. My UNIX skills are too rusty for
> this old-school crap. I'm suddenly reminded of SYSV from 20 years ago,
> in all its Motif glory. Yuk.
>
> Debian this ain't.
>
> Needless to say, neither Bluetooth nor WiFi work either.
>
> I give up and go to shut down. It doesn't. Instead it just logs out and
> logs back in. I go back to the console and type "shutdown -h now", only
> to be greeted with an error along the lines of "-h unsupported option"
> ... Jesus! So I just type "shutdown" and hope for the best. It just sits
> there. I resort to the reset button, eject the CD, then toss it in the bin.
>
> I'm sure if installed this OS and spent enough time familiarising myself
> with it, installing drivers, and configuring it properly, that it would
> work fine. But the question is, why bother?
>
> As I said, this is essentially just GNU, with an anti-GPL kernel, some
> core utils with an unfamiliar syntax, and a nasty looking UI.
>
> I fail to see what makes this a "choice" OS.
>
> But I guess Murdock knows best.
>
> Well thanks Ian, but I'll stick with something a little less ... erm ...
> archaic, if you don't mind, like a 7 year old copy of Debian Potato, for
> example. No, strike that, I'll stick with Fedora (F7 due next month).
Why not order Sun's kit? They can send you something which is probably more
modern to judge by (for free). What you do here is akin to what the INQ
journo did when he assessed Linux based on his Gentoo experience. He was a
total beginners, and a novice in computing.
--
~~ With kind regards
Roy S. Schestowitz | D-I-S-C-O becomes D-I-E S-C-O
http://Schestowitz.com | Open Prospects ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
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