Open Solaris

[Jay Vaughan]

> I sense a possible heated discussion here...so to cool it down a  
> bit, I
> can tell you that it's currently -24°C outside here :)
>

Yeah, I won't get into any heated discussions about this, its pretty  
clear that Peter is a long-time Solaris user with a lot to say on the  
subject, just as I am with the funny-named Linux, but the same old  
rule applies no matter what anyone else says: use what works for you.

I can say this about Solaris: there are some real stubborn, arrogant  
bastards working on it.  I can't tell you how many times in the last  
week I've cursed them for their ridiculous alterations of the ELF  
standard API, for example .. I'm working on some ELF-related stuff at  
work, and just when I think I'm finished, someone loads things up on  
Solaris and finds 'one more thing that Solaris does wrong compared to  
the standards' .. this is a real pain in the butt, so my hatred of  
OpenSolaris is pretty high right now.  Thats why I won't get drawn  
into any conversations about it .. ;)

> The reason I considering OpenSolaris is that I've heard good things
> about ZFS regarding fileintegrity and that discencryption (through  
> ZFS)
> are to be implemented this year.
>

Its a positive, true, but there are equally viable filesystems on  
Linux too .. be wary of the ZFS hype:

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/compare-different-linux-unix-filesystem.html
http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/new-linux-file-system-in-development-tux3/

.. BTRFS is another interesting Linux development, should you  
determine that OpenSolaris isn't up your alley.  And no matter what  
filesystem you use, the solution to longer-term safety and prosperity  
with your data is always, always, always going to be: backup, backup,  
backup.  ZFS is an operational/online solution to data integrity, its  
designed to make sure your downtime between failure is as low as  
possible, but it in no way protects you from 100% data loss when your  
hardware fails.  Whatever filesystem you use, make copies of it, over  
and over and over, and that is the *only* way you can be sure you'll  
have it all safe.  I say this every time: Russian Doll your disks and  
do it every week if you want safety and sanctity.

> Since there's so many important things (music, pics, homevideos, etc.)
> being stored digitally now I consider this the most important aspects.
>


I know you'll let us all know how things go, and I look forward to  
hearing about your first ZFS setup, as this is a pretty nice  
filesystem that I wish had made its way into Snow Leopard already,  
grr .. so please report in once you've got it running.  Very  
interested, personally ..

;
--
Jay Vaughan