[OpenIndiana-discuss] Solaris 11 Express available

[Nikola M]

Emanuele Pucciarelli wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 09:27, Nikola M <minikola at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>   
>> Only way you can be sure is when you use OS that is Open Source.
>> Everything closed makes very much reasonable to be paranoid.
>>     
> This is not true. The paranoid have to agree with Ken Thompson:
> http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/ken/trust.html . If one claims to be
> paranoid but doesn't go that far (the compiler, then the assemblers
> and loaders, then the microcode…), then he/she is at risk of just
> being misguided. :)
>   
Yes. True.
We all wait for a moment once in the future, when all-free code of ON
will be compiled with gcc or clang.. just to be sure ;)

Only it seems that bigger problem is comparison with closed/open source.
Closed source is not to be trusted at all.. as a first step forward.

I think Openness of Solaris Next/OpenSolaris helped people use even
their closed Solaris 10 installations.

Anyway OI is open, let's stick to that, even Oracle promised in some
kind of internal mail message memo that their's ON code will be released
some time after binary releases.  (Solaris11 or SolarisExpress?)

Lets hope they are interested on keeping their new potential customers
OpenSolaris attracted so far.

If ability to be able to buy support for an Open Source OS is to be
retained in the future, that might push selling of Oracle Solaris
Support contracts - instead of bashing it as it is with present
situation of  closed source ON.
> If you are not paranoid, at least DTrace and other observability tools
> give you a few ways to be reassured about what your system does, or
> the certainty that hiding a Ken Thompson-style trick would require a
> whole lot of trojan horses. ;)
>   
Agree.
> As an aside, I wouldn't bet my own business on Oracle's marketing
> strategy now (neither would Oracle's marketing strategy ever try to
> reach me), but I am very glad that Alan and other Oracle people hang
> around Illumos and OI lists and offer help and advice. Thanks!
>   
Yes, true!