Workstations NeXT Apollo VAX VMS

(Kena/21659) Heh. I've been to Champaign exactly once, for a wedding (since ...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:52:00 -0600

Heh.  I've been to Champaign exactly once, for a wedding (since dissolved) in
'95, that involved a trek from NH to NJ to Chicago, Iowa City, Champain, W.
Va., NJ, and back to NH in... three days.
Not recommended if you're planning on sightseeing.
To keep this evvvvver so slightly on-topic, I did get to see the lab where the
ISCA folk used to log in.  Or, one of them.  I dunno; it was my GF who want to
UIowa, not me.

(Greg Koenig/21658) I did my PhD in Computer Science at University of Illinois at Ur...

Greg Koenig@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:48:00 -0600

I did my PhD in Computer Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
My apartment window looked out at the building Wolfram Research is in, and I
hung out with a group of grad students and local geeks on Tuesday nights at an
event we called "Beer Tuesday".  A few of these geeks worked for Wolfram
Research and had some good stories to tell.

Apparently it's a semi-frequent occurrence for Stephen Wolfram to get upset at
people and just "fire" them outright.  I guess this generally means that you go
home and wait a day or two and then come back into work like nothing happened.

One of my friends got yelled at or maybe "fired" one time when he was using a
copy of _A_New_Kind_Of_Science_ to prop a door open.

Mostly Stephen's brother Conrad runs the business.  Stephen only comes to
Champaign a few times a year.  I've seen him lecture a few times.  Although
he's a physicist by education, I believe he has some kind of appointment with
the CS department at UIUC.

Apparently Wolfram feels some kind of rivalry with Stephen Hawking, because if
Hawking wasn't around then Wolfram would be the undoubted top British
physicist.  I always used to tell my friends from Wolfram Research to bring
Wolfram's home phone number to Beer Tuesday and that I'd bring my old Speak And
Spell and we'd prank call him.

(Cyanide/21657) Not all smart people are hard to work with.. I have known a few ...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:25:00 -0600

Not all smart people are hard to work with.. I have known a few that could
blow, myself off the table. They were easy to work with.

The smart ones have already figured out they made a mistake and figured out
a way around it that is inclusive of what you are already doing.
And they usually admit it right up front which relieves a TON of tension.
They have probably also designed a way out of the situation upfront in
case they did make a mistake.

The Smart people, or the not so smart people who have this need to prove
to the world they are the smartest are the worst to work with because they
are never wrong, even if you point it out to them which in fact makes it
worse. Usually they are also pretty sheltered people..

(Kena/21656) I are a smart people. Now that you mention it, I've known one...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:15:00 -0600

I *are* a smart people.  Now that you mention it, I've known one or two who
went by that same train of thought.  Honestly, the one I have in mind might
even have *been* a smart person, but he was so impossible to work with that it
occluded anything good he might have been able to bring to the table.

Clearly, though, anyone reading a Workstations> forum on a 20-year-old BBS is
within shouting distance of genius, so I like perching up here and watching the
ants scurry about below. ;-)

(Egregious/21655) I've known a few guys who tried the logic pattern of:

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:20:00 -0600

I've known a few guys who tried the logic pattern of:
1. Smart people are hard to work with
2. I am hard to work with
3. Therefore, I am a smart people

(Feoh/21654) It's the nature of what we do. People hyper optimize their brai...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:16:00 -0600

It's the nature of what we do.  People hyper optimize their brains for code so
thoroughly that little things like learning how to behave in social situations
fall by the wayside.  It's not like we're alone though, think about the meme of
the socially challenged scientist that existed long before computers were even
a thing :)

(Kena/21653) Come to think of it, we really are somewhat renowned for having ...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:05:00 -0600

Come to think of it, we really are somewhat renowned for having oddballs,
aren't we?  DJB, RMS, any number of the ones from the early chapter of Steve
Levy's book, "Hackers".  The list goes on, I'm sure.

(Kena/21652) Okay, I gotta ask -- how's Wolfram wacked? I hadn't realized he...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:44:00 -0600

Okay, I gotta ask -- how's Wolfram wacked?  I hadn't realized he was...
(I know a Kurzweil -- he's in the local Linux group -- and I often wonder if
he's related.  The guy I know is stable enough, but he's the right age, the
right school (MIT), etc., to make me wonder if the last name isn't just a
coincidence.)

(Feoh/21651) I thought you could also have a Lisp Machine act as the 'head' f...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:15:00 -0600

I thought you could also have a Lisp Machine act as the 'head' for a Thinking
Machines CM?

(Egregious/21650) I have a few old co-workers well known enough to have wikipedia ...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:15:00 -0600

I have a few old co-workers well known enough to have wikipedia pages that I
would put at the top of the list if an old friend asked me "guess who just got
arrested for murder?"

(Yorick/21649) I know everything about Wolfram on a personal level from the hea...

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:07:00 -0600

I know everything about Wolfram on a personal level from the hearsay of one
person, but she (an early and longtime Wolfram employee) is also kind of a
weird duck, so who knows.

(Egregious/21648) Wolfram is a very different kind of sociopath than Reiser.

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:02:00 -0600

Wolfram is a very different kind of sociopath than Reiser.

I'd put Wolfram, Kurzweil, and Joy in one bucket of crazy, near but very
distinct from Reiser's bucket.

(Yorick/21647) Thinking machines looked, to the programmer, like a "really fast...

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:50:00 -0600

Thinking machines looked, to the programmer, like a "really fast coprocessor
bolted onto the side of a Sparc."  This is what my friend Paul, who was
sysadmin/fieldtech for the CM5 that was at the U of MN supercomputer center,
told me when I asked the same question.

He also told me Danny Hillis was in the Steven Wolfram/Hans Reiser category of
sociopaths.

(Feoh/21646) I think they mostly ran a UNIX variant, but there was a special ...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:21:00 -0600

I think they mostly ran a UNIX variant, but there was a special Common LISP
variant written for them.  The Wikipedia article is again pretty fascinating
reading :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connection_Machine

(Kena/21645) Damn... what was that place? Oh! Thinking Machines -- they had...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:47:00 -0600

Damn... what was that place?  Oh!  Thinking Machines -- they had some nifty
crazy parallel solutions long before it became vogue.  Were they LISP boxen?  I
don't recall.

(Feoh/21644) Talk to some of the folks from the LISP machine camp about that ...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:48:00 -0600

Talk to some of the folks from the LISP machine camp about that :) They know
all about it.  Symbolics Genera is pretty damn cool when you look at it
objectively without the LISP fear most geeks seem to have :)

(Kena/21643) Wow. Sometimes, you lose track of how much cool tech just never...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:27:00 -0600

Wow.  Sometimes, you lose track of how much cool tech just never really caught
on.  Guess that's what happens when you're not first to market, etc., etc.

(Feoh/21642) Ah, seems that NeWS wasn't strictly speaking Display Postscript,...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:44:00 -0600

Ah, seems that NeWS wasn't strictly speaking Display Postscript, but instead
was a window system with a deeply embedded PostScript interpreter.  The
wikipedia article is a fascinating read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS

(Kena/21641) Oh, yeah. Wasn't that was NeWS was, or something? It grows haz...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:28:00 -0600

Oh, yeah.  Wasn't that was NeWS was, or something?  It grows hazy.

(Feoh/21640) Sun too for a while I think.

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:20:00 -0600

Sun too for a while I think.

(Cyanide/21639) yes.

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:14:00 -0600

yes.

(Kena/21638) Wasn't NeXT's rendering Display Post Script?

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:10:00 -0600

Wasn't NeXT's rendering Display Post Script?

(Ethereal Cereal/21637) I'm reminded of the Display Post Script extensions in X11 as one...

Ethereal Cereal@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:43:00 -0600

I'm reminded of the Display Post Script extensions in X11 as one of those "ooo
you are going to *pay* for that!" functionalities.

(Cyanide/21636) 3270 and 5150 over a tunneled ssl connection might be harder to ...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:10:00 -0600

3270 and 5150 over a tunneled ssl connection might be harder to find which
might also be a requirement.

(Yorick/21635) 3270 and 5150 have pretty good open source and gateway support w...

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:51:00 -0600

3270 and 5150 have pretty good open source and gateway support with some fairly
powerful keymapping.  But if you have software designed for something like a
Tektronix 4014 that's a bit more difficult.

(Kena/21634) Heh. 1998? Terminal.exe worked just fine. As did, for that ma...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:00:00 -0600

Heh.  1998?  Terminal.exe worked just fine.  As did, for that matter, most
anything that you connected to ISCA with.

As for your client, Lochner, I do kind of wonder if they're doing IBM 3270
emulation or something with EBCDIC that might have truly weird keyboard
bindings and/or other functionality that most ANSI/VT100 emulators simply don't
offer.  "Terminal emulator" can mean an awful lot of things, depending on
what's on the other end.

(Wang Master/21633) old company i worked for back in 1998 bought a crazy expensive l...

Wang Master@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:18:00 -0600

old company i worked for back in 1998 bought a crazy expensive license to a
vt100 terminal emulator application.

only reason they did so was that the previous manager who purchased it had no
concept of open source software and didn't know how much was acutally out there
that properly did vt100.

i'm fairly certain putty didn't exist back then but there were a handful of
other vt100 emulators.

(Egregious/21632) I was thinking of "Terminal Services" in Server 2008.

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:04:00 -0600


I was thinking of "Terminal Services" in Server 2008.

(Yorick/21631) There are remote desktop and X server packages, but I would not ...

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:30:00 -0600

There are remote desktop and X server packages, but I would not normally expect
to see those described as a terminal emulator in an IT budget.

But yes, fiften years ago a
large company might have spent that much on Citrix ICA connection licenses or
something similar.

(Egregious/21630) Isn't a terminal emulator something that lets you get your Windo...

Egregious@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:18:00 -0600


Isn't a terminal emulator something that lets you get your Windows
environment while putty sticks you with a command line?

It was probably worth hundreds of thousands of dollars 5 years ago,
but stuff like that is almost a commodity these days.

(Yorick/21629) I've worked at a couple of businesses which needed various mainf...

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:56:00 -0600

I've worked at a couple of businesses which needed various mainframe terminal
emulation software.  The most common reason for the additional expense is that
there's a team of data-entry or operations folk who learned how to do all of
their job functions by rote using particular functions keys or key combinations
on dumb terminals, and for one reason or another they company didn't want to
force them to retrain.  (It's probably not a coincidence that both businesses
had clerical unions)  An alternative, even if it displayed the screen
correctly, would change those mappings.

Occasionally an application will use a mainframe graphic
package for something like a (to use one example) a thermal control system, and
that package only works properly in emulation of a obscure terminal.

That said, your client is more than likely getting soaked; there are web
terminal gateways that can be licensed and open-source packages that can be
modded.  Anything off the shelf there's probably an easy solution; if the
product is customized, as is most often the case, companies often decide to pay
big bucks in the short term to not have to think about it, assuming they'll
migrate the apps before it makes sense to get a cheaper terminal emulation
software.  And after making that decision in 1996...

(Knightshade/21628) Offer commercial support probably.

Knightshade@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:24:00 -0600

Offer commercial support probably.

Or possibly it's emulating some relatively obscure thing putty doesn't do.

(Lochner/21627) Is there a difference between a terminal emulator and, say, PuTT...

Lochner@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:32:00 -0600


Is there a difference between a terminal emulator and, say, PuTTY?  I've got a
client paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to license terminal
emulation software, I can't figure out what that software does that something
like PuTTY does not.

(Kena/21626) That was the default... but... but... errr... wow. Yeah. ypbin...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:11:00 -0600

That was the default... but... but... errr... wow.  Yeah.  ypbind would do the
broadcast, unless you explicitly have it unicast IPs.  Wow, that stuff's buried
deep.  But, assuming your SunOS box is configured for NIS, it *will* get pissed
if it doesn't find a suitable yp master (or, I suppose, slave).

(Ethereal Cereal/21625) By default, NIS came up listening for a broadcast, BTW. :)

Ethereal Cereal@rss.iscabbs.com — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:21:00 -0600

By default, NIS came up listening for a broadcast, BTW. :)

/pedantic

(Kena/21624) Heh. I'll admit it: I never knew xmkmf was part of X developmen...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:25:00 -0600

Heh.  I'll admit it: I never knew xmkmf was part of X development.  (Funnily
enough, I still have it in my "FAQ" file, because that was the command I could
never quite remember all the letters to when I needed to make something.)

(Feoh/21623) I should try building it under OSX. I was quite surprised at ho...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 05:21:00 -0600

I should try building it under OSX.  I was quite surprised at how easily XLIfe
spun up once I had all the requisite bits (finding the old xmkmf stuff was
harder than it looked because it's no longer distributed with the X11 devel
stuff anymore.  Phillistines, don't they know old software needs love too? :)

(Kena/21622) I just compiled xroach. "Because." (Sadly, though, it doesn't ...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:15:00 -0600

I just compiled xroach.  "Because."  (Sadly, though, it doesn't seem to work
with contemporary window managers -- I was able to get it to run just ducky
under wmaker, howerver.)

(Kena/21621) I just -- finally -- brought my monitor stand in to work. Other...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 04:21:00 -0600

I just -- finally -- brought my monitor stand in to work.  Otherwise known as a
Sparkstation IPX.  Cisco's, I think, though it was old when I took it.

I even have the Allied Telesis transceiver, if'n I wanted to plug it in.  No
monitor, or keyboard, and it would almost certainly barf when it couldn't find
the NIS server at whatever the old default Sun IP was, but hey...

(Kena/21620) Well, no duh: it runs ISCA. ;-)

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:26:00 -0500

Well, no duh: it runs ISCA.  ;-)

As for knowing people who worked *for* Apollo, I don't know anyone (though I
passed the few remainders when HP had a small section of 300 Apollo Dr., back
when the rest of it -- and 250 -- were Cisco.  Cisco's since left for Boxboro,
though, so I don't even know who's on Apollo anymore except for Cintas).

It's kinda sad to work in this section of MA.  There's a lot of tech here, to
be sure, but the golden age, a-la _Soul of a New Machine_, is definitely over,
with those folk having fled to CA.

(Feoh/21619) Kena> Cool! I didn't know you were MA based! I knew a lot of fol...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:39:00 -0500

Kena> Cool! I didn't know you were MA based! I knew a lot of folks who worked
at Apollo.  Sounds like it was a great place to be when they were on top.
DomainOS was ahead of its time in many respects from what I hear.

(Kena/21618) Heh. At my new digs, I'm now six seconds past Apollo Dr. (that ...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:13:00 -0500

Heh.  At my new digs, I'm now six seconds past Apollo Dr. (that I actually used
to work on, a decade ago).  Some of the manhole covers still say "Apollo
Computer Corp" or words to that effect.

(Feoh/21617) Kena> He half jokingly ran for president two elections ago :) Qu...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 05:53:00 -0500

Kena> He half jokingly ran for president two elections ago :) Quite a
character.  Yes, he's doing Linux-oid stuff now, but sadly none of the fun
screen hacks he became famous for.

I wonder if modern OSen just make that kind of thing way too difficult, or if
people have lost interest?

(Kena/21616) Yes. Schwabbies -- I'd forgotten (gasp) about Leo Schwab. Wa...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:12:00 -0500

Yes.  Schwabbies -- I'd forgotten (*gasp*) about Leo Schwab.  Wasn't he doing
something Linux-y?  *googles*  Yah, he's around, even has a page that's only...
15 years out of date: http://ewhac.best.vwh.net/amiga/

(Feoh/21615) Ah that makes sense. For instance you sometimes see ads for "De...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 04:26:00 -0500

Ah that makes sense.  For instance you sometimes see ads for "Dedicated 3D
rendering workstations".  I like it.

(Yorick/21614) I'll try my hand at a definition:

Yorick@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:02:00 -0500

I'll try my hand at a definition:
A workstation is a desktop computer which has one or more features only useful
for niche applications in the scientific and engineering fields.  This can be
the operating system, specific hardware, or even components built to higher i
tolerances than are otherwise useful.

(Feoh/21613) Well said, I agree.

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 02:53:00 -0500

Well said, I agree.

(Dr Doctor/21612) Ah, I see what you're asking. You're not saying "if it's Intel,...

Dr Doctor@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:03:00 -0500


Ah, I see what you're asking.  You're not saying "if it's Intel, it's not a
workstation," you're saying, "I don't see how 'desktop PC' and 'workstation'
are differentiated anymore."  In that case, yes, I think you're right.

I think these days, workstations are sort of like obscenity in the Meese
Comission way - "I can't tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it." (or
words to that effect).

(Feoh/21611) I don't know which is why I asked the question, I thought the te...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:01:00 -0500

I don't know which is why I asked the question, I thought the term might have
lost some of its validity since so much hardware is pretty much the same under
the hood these days.

(Dr Doctor/21610) Well, what's special about a "workstation" then? To me it's bee...

Dr Doctor@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:59:00 -0500


Well, what's special about a "workstation" then?  To me it's been "a desktop
computer running some form of non-Windows operating system".  What makes a
machine a workstation to you?

(Feoh/21609) Are there any machines still sold that could even be considered ...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:27:00 -0500

Are there any machines still sold that could even be considered "workstations"
? Seems like that term has become kinda moot in the era of total Intel arch
dominance.

(Feoh/21608) Kena> Schwabbies! I miss those too :) CloseMe, Robotroff, Ing, m...

Feoh@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:21:00 -0500

Kena> Schwabbies! I miss those too :) CloseMe, Robotroff, Ing, man, those
things were great :)

(Kena/21607) Actually, the screen hack I really want is the old Felix-The-Cat...

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 15:01:00 -0600

Actually, the screen hack I really want is the old Felix-The-Cat clock.

I also miss all the old Amiga screen hacks.  That was quite the art form for a
while, and, while a lot of them either originated in, or migrated to, *nix, you
don't see many left these days.  Dammit, I want my xroach!

(Cyanide/21606) There was one that was i think a shell script that ran in a term...

Cyanide@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:17:00 -0600

There was one that was i think a shell script that ran in a terminal window. It
featured a moving train and blinking lights on a tree.. you don't have that one
do you?
:)

(Kena/21605) It's that time of year again:

Kena@rss.iscabbs.com — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:40:00 -0600

It's that time of year again:

#include <stdio.h>
main(t,_,a)
char *a;
{
  return
    ((!0) < t )
      ? ((t < 3
          ? main(-79,-13,a+main(-87,1-_,main(-86,0,a+1)+a))
          : 1),

         (t < _
          ? main(t+1,_,a)
          : 3),

         (main(-94,-27+t,a)
          && (t==2
              ? ( _ < 13
                 ? main(2,_+1,"%s %d %d\n")
                 : 9)
              : 16)))

        : (t < 0
           ? (t < -72
              ?
              main(_,t,
"@n'+,#'/*{}w+/w#cdnr/+,{}r/*de}+,/*{*+,/w{%+,/w#q#n+,/#{l+, \
/n{n+,/+#n+,/#\
;#q#n+,/+k#;*+,/'r :'d*'3,}{w+K w'K:'+}e#';dq#'l \
q#'+d'K#!/+k#;q#'r}eKK#}w'r}eKK{nl]'/#;#q#n'){)#}w'){) \
{nl]'/+#n';d}rw' i;# \
){nl]!/n{n#'; r{#w'r nc{nl]'/# \
{l,+'K {rw' iK{;[{nl]'/w#q#n'wk nw' \
iwk{KK{nl]!/w{%'l##w#' i; :{nl]'/*{q#'ld;r'}{nlwb!/*de}'c \
;;{nl'-{}rw]'/+,}##'*}#nc,',#nw]'/+kd'+e}+;#'rdq#w! nr'/ ') }+} \
{rl#'{n' ')# \
}'+}##(!!/")

              : (t < -50
                 ? (_ == *a
                    ? putchar(31[a])
                    : main(-65,_,a+1))
                 : main((*a=='/')+t,_,a+1)))
           : (0 < t
              ? main (2,2,"%s" )
              : * a=='/'
              || main(0,main(-61,*a,
                             "!ek;dc i@bK'(q)-[w]*%n+r3#l,{}:\nuwloca-O;m
..vpbks,fxntdCeghiry"),a+1)
              )
           );
}





# Compile, run, and enjoy.

(Ethereal Cereal/21604) looks at his Hadoop grid

Ethereal Cereal@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:28:00 -0600

*looks at his Hadoop grid*

*snickers*

(Gespalder/21603)

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:49:00 -0600

<http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/12/oracle-launches-sparc-supercluste
r-sets-new-db-performance-record.ars>

They now make the whole widget, like Apple.

Notice the frequent mention of their competitor, IBM, who also makes the whole
widget.

(Wang Master/21597) http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/oracle-unveils...

Wang Master@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:15:00 -0500

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/oracle-unveils-mysql-55-says-
goodbye-to-opensolaris-brand-oow10-008649.php

so yes, opensolaris is gone
but solaris open source will stick around.

(Gespalder/21596) Paper edition of SD Times is my source.

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:04:00 -0500

Paper edition of SD Times is my source.
Title of the article: Oracle closes OpenSolaris
                      Leaked internal memo shows company is replacing
                      open-source OS

(Wang Master/21595) Oracle is being extremely quiet about opensolaris. To the point...

Wang Master@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 12:09:00 -0500

Oracle is being extremely quiet about opensolaris.  To the point that the
opensolaris governing board gave up and disbanded and another group forked it
undera  project called illumos.

so while I think the general sentiment is that opensolaris is gone, without an
official response from oracle, it's all speculation.

opensolaris in it's form just prior to the board disbanding though is indeed
gone.  anything that happens in the future will be a "new" take on it given the
dissolution of the board and assets being returned to oracle.

(Grayson/21594) I keep hearing about Oracle killing Open Soliaris but every time...

Grayson@rss.iscabbs.com — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:06:00 -0500

I keep hearing about Oracle killing Open Soliaris but every time I look it
seems like it was just another rumor. You got a source for this one?

(Gespalder/21593) Since you folks use it....OpenSolaris is being quietly killed by...

Gespalder@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:26:00 -0500

Since you folks use it....OpenSolaris is being quietly killed by Oracle. They
plan to push people to traditional Solaris.

(Shag/21592) Yeah, I wouldn't be eager to stick with Sun kit post-acquisition...

Shag@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:56:00 -0500

Yeah, I wouldn't be eager to stick with Sun kit post-acquisition either...
neither Solaris nor SPARC seem to be gaining much market share.

I'd be even less eager to have anything to do with HP/UX on Itanium, which
seems to be about the least popular server CPU architecture going (doesn't
help to release chips in 2010 that were on the roadmap for 2007, folks!)

So as far as non-"commodity" options, that leaves AIX on IBM POWER, and
since these Alpha/Tru64 boxen are really mostly front-ends that aren't
doing lots of heavy lifting, I doubt it's worth it.

Throw in that my workplace is one of about a dozen places here doing
research in the same area, and that among the others I'm aware of, the
last 5 years have seen a lot of servers replaced by Linux boxen, and
the desk clutter of having a PC for the office network, a SPARC for
visualization, and a PowerBook for portability has yielded to a single
Mac(Book) Pro with Boot Camp and VMware, and big-ass flat panel(s) in
the space those other computers used to take up. :)

So my guess is that in a couple years, the people who worry about getting
proper support contracts for Linux systems will have it explained to them
that we can get X64-based ProLiant gear, running RHEL, with proper support
contracts, and be told to STFU and port their code already. ;)

I'd be even happier if the kit was even more commodity-grade, since we
don't need server-spec gear for front-ends.  Mil-spec SSDs with 35K'
operating ceilings might come in handy, though...

(Ethereal Cereal/21591) Oracle is doing everything it possible can to piss off Solaris s...

Ethereal Cereal@rss.iscabbs.com — Fri, 21 May 2010 20:39:00 -0500

Oracle is doing everything it possible can to piss off Solaris shops.... so I
wouldn't go that route. I give Solaris like 2-3 more years of viability,
tops.  That pretty much leaves you with HP/UX or AIX.

(Astasia/21583) I have a couple of NeXT MegaPixel monochrome displays that I'd l...

Astasia@rss.iscabbs.com — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:59:00 -0500

I have a couple of NeXT MegaPixel monochrome displays that I'd like to give
away free to a good home.  IIRC they're both non-ADB models.  I think I also
have non-ADB keyboards and mice to go with them, but I'd have to dig that
stuff out to be sure.  Local pick-up only in Coralville, IA.  E-mail me if
you're interested.  Thanks!

(Raccoon/21525) Yeah, it has all the internet social skills of March(?), 1994.

Raccoon@rss.iscabbs.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:30:00 -0500

Yeah, it has all the internet social skills of March(?), 1994.