[Gllug] He who controls the bootloader

[Richard Cohen]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, David Damerell wrote:

> On Tuesday, 28 Aug 2001, tet at accucard.com wrote:
> >>Some parts of the company like Cobalt (duh!), Java or StarOffice do
> >>support Linux completely, but the company as a whole does not.
> >I've been told by semi-reliable sources that the long term plan is to
> >migrate RaQ's to Solarix/x86 (on current hardware), to allow an easy
> >migration path to Solaris/SPARC for future hardware. AFAIK, they're
> >sticking with Linux because it works *now*, and it's bringing in
> >revenue. The switch to Solaris (if turns out to be anything more than
> >just a rumour) will take time.

I can state as a fact that I have *no* reason at all to believe this.  While
I am not in the councils of the higher-ups, I do try to keep my ears open,
and as far as I know, everyone is happy with Cobalt as they are.

I know <hat type=personal>I am happy with the RaQ I hire</hat>.

> Also, it'll raise the question of why you don't have to pay for a
> Solaris OS license if it's for a blue box (since they can't very well
> add the normal purchase price for Solaris to the cost of a Raq). They
> can PR their way out of that, but I think Solaris/SPARC is a
> non-starter; it'll make the hardware much more expensive on systems
> that won't benefit from the purportedly faster processor, because
> everything they do is limited by network or disc speed.
>
> Mind you, what do I know? In 1993, I was confident the Web was a
> gimmick that would never replace gopher; and Sun did manage to sell
> the Ultra 5...

Sorry dude - Solaris is free for machines below a certain number of
processors (8, I think).  You can go download it if you've got a big enough
pipe...

This is starting to get off-topic.  If anyone wants to take it off-list,
feel free...

Cheers
Richard


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