[OpenIndiana-discuss] [oi-dev] OpenSXCE: To live or to die

[Michael Spacefalcon]

Hello OI/OS/whatever community,

I am popping out of read-only lurk mode for just a brief moment,
because after the exchanges that have just taken place on this mailing
list, I can no longer morally allow myself to remain silent.

Therefore, let it be known publicly that I am officially on the side
of Martin Bochnig.  I hate the x86 computer architecture almost as
much as I hate capitalism, and the one and only architecture on which
I care to run any form of *Solaris* (the asterisks are meant as glob
characters, not bold emphasis) is SPARC.  Martin is the only person I
am aware of who has produced a distro that is actually installable on
a SPARC machine -- aside from Oracle's version whose installation I
aborted the moment it tried to "call home".  Given that a community
that focuses primarily on x86 and has no SPARC support is of no value
to me, if OI and Martin's project are parting ways, then the choice of
which side to join is a no-brainer for me: I choose to side with
Martin.

Aside from the pragmatic logic that Martin's OpenSXCE for SPARC is
more relevant to my technical needs than Illumos/OI, I also like
Martin as a person -- a lot.  He and I have very similar political
views, and I *completely* understand *exactly* where he coming from in
the economic and financial terms (this time the asterisks are for
emphasis, not globs) -- I have been in exactly the same shoes many
times myself.  Therefore, coming to his side and supporting him is the
proper comradely thing to do.

To bring this rant back on-topic technically, I still need to set up
the new server for my non-profit organization.  This server needs to
be a non-x86 machine (UltraSPARC SunBlade-1000), and the functional
need is to have ZFS and zones.  The combination of {SPARC hardware +
ZFS + zones} clearly calls for *Solaris*, not *Linux* (globs), and
because I would much rather use a distro put together and maintained
by a comrade, rather than a corporation, out of the only two available
choices for *Solaris* on SPARC (Oracle's version, and Martin's
OpenSXCE), I choose Martin's version.

Because the machine I'm setting up will be a full production server
performing several different mission-critical functions for a family
of related organizations (in different zones, hehe), I need the OS to
be rock solid, and of the highest quality.  And to make that happen, I
will very gladly pay Martin to provide a commercial level of support
for my copy of OpenSXCE -- certainly no worse than the level of
support that Oracle provides to customers who pay the full price.

And yes, I am going to look up exactly how much Oracle would want for
a full support contract to run their version of Solaris on a server
like mine.  If I can afford to spare that much money, I will very
gladly give that exact same amount to Martin instead for OpenSXCE
support.

Obviously my further communication with Martin will be by unicast, but
I have chosen to post this message publicly in order to show my
support.

Viva la Revolucion,
Michael Spacefalcon,
a proud citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Proletarians of all countries, unite!