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List:       opensolaris-discuss
Subject:    Re: [osol-discuss] Solaris 10,Oracle Solaris Express new license
From:       Eric Andersen <andersenep () gmail ! com>
Date:       2010-09-14 11:38:17
Message-ID: 146624554.281284489527816.JavaMail.Twebapp () sf-app1
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> For those of us using Solaris in production, having
> access to the source code,
> coupled with DTrace, has made our lives much, much
> easier. Punching down into
> weird problems becomes possible without a lot of
> blood and cargo culting.
> 
> It's nice that you're happy using Solaris for free (I
> pay for my support
> contracts), but having such an incredibly useful
> resource for Getting Work Done
> pulled or just hamstrung, is pretty painful.
> 
> I say hamstrung as source drops will still occur
> after releases, in theory;
> previously dropped source should, hopefully, continue
> to be accessible. And for
> my Enterprisey customers, that will almost certainly
> be good enough.
> 
> There are also several large orangizations who
> require bleeding edge in their
> production. Having access to the latest source for
> not only finding and
> reporting problems, but submitting patches back
> upstream, was really helpful.
> 
> I also paid my OS X licenses, both at home and at
> work. But I'm not using OS X
> for anything one might consider five nines, whereas
> Solaris...


I absolutely understand your position.  If lack of, or insufficient access to source \
code is a deal breaker for a good number of paying customers, then Oracle will have \
to address that issue.

This thread was about the new OTN license covering Solaris 10 and Solaris Express.  \
If Oracle is going to allow people to use their software for free, that's a good \
thing, even if it might not be as "good" as what Sun gave away for free.  I am really \
shocked that there are people complaining about this.  There was some guy on another \
thread asking if Oracle was going to provide him with tech support for Solaris \
Express for free!

If you're a paying customer and don't feel like you're getting the level of support \
you paid good money for, by all means, complain about it.  If you're using something \
that someone is letting you use at absolutely no cost (i.e. a freeloader like me), \
whether it's in a production environment or not, you have no room for complaint.

I don't think Oracle wants to lose customers, they just want to make a profit on the \
billions they invested in buying Sun.  I think that the decision to kill OpenSolaris, \
and offer Solaris Express under a different license, was made mostly to prevent \
people from using their software (and source code) to make money without paying them. \
The decision to still offer a free, uncrippled version of Solaris for \
educational/home use is a very kind gesture in my book, regardless of whether or not \
it was done for strictly business reasons (as I'm sure it was).

I hope Oracle addresses your issues.  Perhaps some future license will give you the \
tools you need to more effectively do your job at a fair cost.

I'm sorry, I'm just blown away that Oracle is offering free personal use of their \
enterprise operating system, and there are people suggesting they should get source \
code, patches, and tech support for free as well...

eric
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