[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [ProgSoc] International Solaris 10 University Challenge



On Thu, 2005-10-27 at 23:10 +1000, jedd wrote:

>  Sun do not behave ethically.
> 
>  Their stated motivations are misleading, distracting, incomplete.
> 
>  Consequently they inspire distrust.
> 
>  Their unstated motivations are disturbing, dangerous, unhelpful.

Just wanted to chime in here and say I agree with Jedd on this one. We
should not touch solaris. Essentially Sun's actions are fire and motion,
Joel explained this concept quite eloquently back in 2002:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000339.html

They make good hardware now. They always have, even if it used to be a
bit overpriced. They're strategy should be to make great software to
sell the hardware (like Apple), yet it's always seemed like they
wanted ... more. If java is a commodity and hardware is a commodity and
operating systems are a commodity, then Sun is a commodity business,
which is sometimes what Johnothan says when he's not waxing about the
great solaris 'innovations'. I don't get, but I think the real problem
is no-one at Sun gets it either. Fire and motion, just keep shouting so
people still think were relevant.

>  Solaris (Open<tm> or otherwise) does not deserve goodwill from
>  a community that already has a long-trusted (and arguably superior)
>  alternative.  Or to spell that one out even more simply -- why put
>  effort into something (Sun, not Solaris -- this distinction is
>  important and I think you're not recognising just how important) that
>  has deceived the same community that it now seeks free work from.
> 
>  Worse yet, why put effort into something <ditto> that is probably
>  actively working against the largest recognisable component of that
>  same community right now.

Or to put it even more simply: Where's my fucking OpenSolaris ISO?

No. SchilliX or BeleniX don't count.

>  Go watch the films : Battlefield Earth, Catwoman, Herbie Fully Loaded
>  all in one sitting, and then preach the obligations we have to pay
>  tribute to others based solely on the *quantity* of their efforts.

Yep. If Sun could have done something really cool with software, they
would have done it by now. They have all the resources (great
programmers, great ideas, plenty of hardware, plenty of money) and yet
they always seem to screw it up. If I were to take a guess at why, I'd
say it's their internal culture. I've never been to a sun campus or met
anyone who works at one, but I'd wager that anyone who wants to get
something done would have to first go through a formal analysis process,
followed by a specification process, followed by committee review, at
which point your once brilliant and uplifting idea would now be a heavy
weight you deeply regret bringing on yourself. All the sharp edges would
have been removed:

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/10/keep_the_sharp_.html

-- 
(\ /)
(O.o)
(> <)

-- Myles

-
You are subscribed to the progsoc mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a
message containing "unsubscribe" to progsoc-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you are having trouble, ask owner-progsoc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for help.