RE: [cobalt-users] The new $995 Sun UNIX(r)/RISC King of the road ! - Don't believe the F.U.D.!

[Brandon Wheaton <brandonw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
>It's operating system is NOT open source.  
>

Though the OS itself isn't Open Source, there are a wealth of 
OS/GNU tools at everyone's disposal. Here is a small sample of 
what free and Open Source tools are available for Solaris:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/sparc/

They even give instructions on how to create your own Solaris 
packages, as with Cobalt, 

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/sparc/html/creating.solaris.pack
ages.html

For any StarOffice users, it's Open Source as well.
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2000-07/sunflash.20000719.1.html

I think you will be pleasantly surprised at what you will find if you do 
a search of "open source" on the Sun website.

If you are completely bent on going for an all-out open source 
solution, there are various other Unices and Linux flavors that 
are specifically written for Sparc architecture.

>
> It doesn't have a built-in gui, so initial setup is best 
> left to experienced administrators, and you can't give your 
> users any self-administration through gui features unless 
> you implement another solution.  
>

One word - WebMin -  http://www.webmin.com/webmin/ (Gee, that's Open Source,
too)

>
> It also needs you to create a special cat-5 cable (none is included) 
> to connect your terminal before you can even configure it.
>

Please read the Documentation before making such statements, Jeff.

http://www.sun.com/products-n-solutions/hw/networking/documentation/x1_users
_guide.pdf;$sessionid$LAOHQ4AAADW3XAMTA1LU45Q

Contents of the Ship Kit
	RJ-45 to RJ-45 Patch cable for Ethernet or serial connection
	P/N 530-2961xx - Qty - 2
	RJ-45 to DB-25 adapter P/N 530-2889xx - Qty - 1

You can also use a normal and perfectly available Cisco console cable
for the connection as well.

Also read the sections entitled:

Connecting the cables
	Setting up a serial connection
		
Connection and configuration via terminal emulator is a lot more 
simple than you would have people think. Configuring Solaris 2.7 
on a Netra (t105, X1) via a serial connection and terminal emulator 
(HyperTerminal, SecureCRT) is faster and simpler than a RedHat Linux 
installation.

>
> Don't get me wrong, it's a really awesome system, and an 
> extremely good value.  It's just NOT for the majority of 
> us Cobalt users.
> Jeff
> -- 

Jeff, why not encourage others to try new hardware platforms and 
O/Ses for themselves instead of implying that "us Cobalt users" 
aren't smart enough to set up and administer our own Solaris 
based servers. Smells like F.U.D. to me. At 1/3 the cost of a RaQ3/4, 
people will begin to realize soon enough that migrating to the Netra 
X1 it is well worth the time and effort of learning real UNIX 
administration and take off the Cobalt training wheels once and for 
all. You know as well as I do that they will be better off in the 
long run after Cobalt has been dissolved and Sun kills and stops 
supporting the RaQ/Qube product line.

Take care.

Brandon Wheaton
UNIX Systems Engineer 
ValiCert, Inc.
1215 Terra Bella Ave. 
Mountain View, CA 94043 
650.280.UNIX 

----
Sure UNIX is user friendly; it's just picky about who its friends are.