[OpenIndiana-discuss] "OpenIndiana lead Alasdair Lumsden resigns"

[Open Indiana]

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:gary at 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



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