I started using Solaris around 1992 (ouch, that’s 15 years ago…), using version 2.1, then 2.2, then converting the remaining SPARCstation 1 we had in house from SunOS 4.1 to SVR4 and its magic. Fast-forward to 2006, when we ordered our last hardware from Sun : a pack of four Sun Fire V240 to clusterize a mission-critical OSS using Veritas CVS and a Hitachi SAN. During all these years, Solaris was a nice friend to have on my side. The only road bump was the brain-damaged NIS+, which is now gone for good. In short : I should be happy.
But no, I’m not. Sun has gone through a few strange and acrobatic strategy changes : dismiss Opensource, then provide a CD full of libs and tools (but not compiled for 64 bits so you had to re-do the job yourself), then offer Linux, then signing a partnership with Microsoft (yes, those guys with which they went up to a lengthy and unconvincing legal battle about Java support). And Java Opensourcing ? Why did it take so long ?
Where are you going, boys ? Should I keep my Solaris certified admin badges in a box ? Will they have some meaning in 2010 ? Or drop them in /dev/null right now ?
If a customer ask for replacing a bunch of servers, should I go to your new hardware and Solaris 10 ? Or use Linux ? It has all that stuff that everyone of us expect like MySQL, PostgreSQL, a solid Apache with PHP and a bunch of LDAP libs inside, plus the 1304 perl modules and tools that come with Ubuntu.
Give me a good reason to continue using Solaris. In the projects I work for, the OS is now something as common as power from the facility, water from the tap and food from the shop : it’s just there to buy and use. Nobody wants to get inside and understand how it works : they buy it, use it, be done with it. The interesting job is one layer above the OS : in the application. Build something cool, sell it away, and run away with the cash. Nobody will care about the underlying OS layer (unless it’s from Microsoft and goes south every now and then, but that’s another story).
I have got my way for the desktop in 1997 : I left Windows and started using Linux (and later OS X). Now another road fork is in front of me for the server layer : Solaris or Linux. My customers will most likely follow my recommendations, so please : give me a good reason to recommend Solaris.
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