It's not that OI doesn't have to have a GUI, it's only that not all settings have to be set OVER a GUI. Of course it needs a decent GUI, but that doesn't imply that you can change/alter anything without getting deeper and into the commandline.
-----Original Message----- From: Gary Gendel [mailto:g...@genashor.com] Sent: zondag 2 september 2012 16:53 To: Discussion list for OpenIndiana Subject: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] "OpenIndiana lead Alasdair Lumsden resigns" On 9/2/12 7:23 AM, Dave Koelmeyer wrote: > On 2/09/12 02:48 AM, Bob Friesenhahn wrote: >> On Sat, 1 Sep 2012, Robin Axelsson wrote: >>> >>> I'm fully aware of the power of the command line and it is the >>> command line that really makes me like Unix based OSes (including >>> Linux). But making OI look well-polished with a fancy and easy to >>> administer web-admin GUI that would encourage the average-Joe to use >>> it as a home-NAS / virtual server is not a bad thing. That way OI >>> would reach a higher penetration with a larger user-base and most >>> importantly; it will get _free advertising_. To some extent the old >>> adage "A good product markets itself" has some truth in it. But it >>> must not only be good, it has to /look/ good so that even a less >>> versed person will understand how good it is. >> >> Focusing on issues like this would be putting the cart before the >> horse. It is more important to be able to easily build everything >> and incorporate updates than to have a fancy configuration GUI. OI >> popularity should come second to correct functionality and having an >> organization (of volunteers and corporate entities) to sustain it. If >> OI is worthy, popularity will follow, even if only from people who >> already preferred Solaris. > > +1. Precisely. > I totally agree. However, I selfishly want an X-windows server and window manager on my server. I personally would prefer a simple window manager over a the heavyweight Gnome/KDE camps but there are reasons to go with these. I develop GUI based applications and have just about one of every Linux/Unix/Mac/Windows OS and version running to do build and test sitting in the home office on the opposite coast. Our clients still have a large investment with Solaris 9/10 so it is important that this builds and runs on a Solaris variant. Some of the apps can launch external programs, so it determines whether it should use gnome-open, etc. to choose the appropriate application. I telecommute, so when I make code changes I like to first build and test it on a cross section of platforms locally so I don't ship it out to the build farm broken and make everyone unhappy. I run router/firewall/file-share/backup/web/imap,web,smtp mail services on an old V20z. I have over 10 TB of mirrored zfs storage on which stores mail for each user With all of this, I seldomly tax it's resources. I do, however use this to build and test to make sure that it properly compiles and runs my applications. This has saved me countless of re-spins do to compiler or library issues. Without X-windows and some WM, I would no longer be able to use this machine that way and would have to take the hit for breaking Solaris builds. I recently picked up an Enterprise 450 when I heard of the OI Sparc efforts. However, it came with the internal NIC and the DVD drive broken. It also has that funky PXE graphics card. I got around the NIC by putting a fiberchannel card in and a SX to TX converter, and picked up a replacement DVD drive. I was hoping to not only use it for testing, but to use it to help the SPARC OI efforts but it still requires X-windows and WM to be useful for me. I can't believe that I'm the only one that uses OI to do GUI product development. Gary _______________________________________________ OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list OpenIndiana-discuss@openindiana.org http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss _______________________________________________ OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list OpenIndiana-discuss@openindiana.org http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
