Re: The future of Solaris? - Mailing list pgsql-general

> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-general-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-general-
> owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Emanuel Calvo Franco
> Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 11:27 AM
> To: Liraz Siri; General PostgreSQL List
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] The future of Solaris?
>
> 2008/12/10 Liraz Siri <liraz@turnkeylinux.org>:
> > Guy Rouillier wrote:
> >> Liraz Siri wrote:
> >>> Solaris is awesome (dtrace rocks!), but I still prefer
Debian/Linux
> for
> >>> the same reasons I prefer PostgreSQL over MySQL - its lack of
> dependence
> >>> on any single company.
> >>
> >> OpenSolaris?
> >>
> >
> > I think it takes more than a license to make a true community
> opensource
> > project. You need significant buy-in from a large consortium of
> diverse
> > interests. Sun dominates Solaris/OpenSolaris development and IMHO it
> is
> > unlikely Solaris would survive as a viable long term option if Sun
> > dropped support for it. Solaris has a single point of failure. Linux
> may
> > still be behind Solaris in a few areas but I'll wager Linux will
> catch
> > up and make Solaris completely, utterly obsolete in the not too
> distant
> > future. Sun opened up Solaris too late. It has no future outside of
> tiny
> > specialized niches and legacy installations.
> >
>
> Just look at the last improvements about new technologies of Sun
> (Solaris -Os)  versus Linux and you will see that Solaris is more
alive
> than everytime.
>
> You said Solaris will be obsolete. I think you must read about the
> new projects of Sun and the community inside (Open Source Community).
>
> In fact Sun, sponsor the Open Source (adding Postgresql).
> At the end, the projects more care are from high-end companies.
>
> In other hand, in the year 2000 several people saids the same things
> about Linux, but the prophecies was wrong.
>
> In fact, Windows still leading the statistics and linux don't have
> too much numbers than we could think.
>
> I'm not Sun fan-boy. I'm linux sysadmin. But i'm tired of hearing that
> Linux is the best, when there are serious bugs in some developments
> and most of the real high-servers are in Unix platforms.
>
> in other way, we must think in aviability of Postgres to run better in
> every platform and do not underestimate the benefits of each platform.
>
> sorry for my poooooor english :)

Reminds me of the quote:
"The reports of my death are somewhat exaggerated."

Operating systems ebb and flow and die {if ever} very, very slowly.
If a tool works for a business, they will keep using it for a very, very
long time.

We have customers running on 1985 VAX hardware using RMS and Rdb 4.x
which is absolutely ancient.  But if it fully accomplishes the mission
it needs to fulfill, why change anything?  I think Sun is getting
smarter and smarter (from what I have seen) and I guess that they are
going to do very well.  But our guesses don't matter.

The brilliant strategy of PostgreSQL is to have as open an architecture
as possible so that it compiles anywhere.  So if Linux takes the world
by storm, everyone can have PostgreSQL on Linux.  Or if Windows
dominates, then fine -- PostgreSQL on Windows.  If Apple should suddenly
go nuclear then we can have PostgreSQL on our Macs.  And if Sun blooms
into a fireball in space then our rocket ships can all be powered by
PostgreSQL.

People are always predicting the demise of operating systems and
programming languages.  And you know what?  Most of the lines of code in
the world are *still* written in COBOL <gags>.  Maybe COBOL is not as
active for new projects any more, but all of that COBOL is not just
going to go away.  And with a million or so Sun boxes sitting around in
IT centers, Sun is going to be here for a good, long while too.

So my advice is -- don't worry about it.