[OpenIndiana-discuss] newbie questions

[Till Wegmüller]

Hey Lev

Welcome to the Community



> 1. Is the whole system is package based? Like Linux, unlike FreeBSD.
Depends on what you mean package based. FreeBSD is AFAIK also package 
based as linux. They just have Ports as compiling source may not always 
be what you want.

But yes we have a Package system called IPS


> 2. Is it recommended for desktop OS, or are you focusing on server
> installations?
We strive to be General Purpose. We recently integrated MATE 1.14 so we 
have Desktops precompiled.


> 3. Is there any way to install the OS without ZFS?
Yes. But not via installer and not recomended. Why no ZFS if I may ask? 
It's one of the main features of OI.


> 4. Is ext4 is supported? Recommended for root, home?
No. Driver is GPL and thus due to licensing issues not ported.


> 5. Is it recommended to install the OS on old HW? I have this currently
> running Debian Linux:
Depends how much RAM you have you shaould at least have 1.5Gb


> I use XFCE, and it runs good. I ask this because I run oi in Virtualbox, and
> it is very very slow.
Virtualbox and other virtualisation tends to do that. Especially on 
older hardware and with limited RAM.


> I'd use this computer for software development, embedded software development,
> but also watching movies with mpv.
What IDE/Editor are you using? Not all IDE's for embedded run on OI. 
CLion for exmaple does not.

Be aware that when you are programming in Native languages(C, C++) that 
you may need a linux to compile the binary for the embedded device.

>
> 6. Is there any web interface for packages, so I can check if there's any
> package that I'll miss, and have to compile by myself.
>
Yes. http://pkg.openindiana.org/hipster

or just type pkg search in commandline. The result is the same.


> 7. I also have a server, currently running FreeBSD. It hosts a git server,
> lighttpd based web server, NFS server, and acts as border GW doing NAT. Can I
> use oi for these?
I don't know about lighttpd, we have nginx and apache. But the rest is 
do able. I can give you some instructions for NAT.


Greetings
Till