Solaris 10 6/06

I've been playing with Solaris 10 6/06 (or U2, as I'll refer to it here) - the mid-year update to the Solaris operating system. For what is classed as a minor update, there's quite a lot here in the new release, such as ZFS, and there's a lot more hidden behind the scenes that will appeal to both desktop and server users.

I spoke to Chris Ratcliffe at Sun about the new release, and you can hear the well-deserved enthusiasm for this release, not just because of the headline features, but because of some of the other aspects that I'll get on to later. Ironically, Chris was in the same area and Sun office that I used to work right next door to; I'd often visit the office and even borrowed a CD or two from them during the early days of Solaris testing and deployment at the company where I was working. Sometimes IT really is a smaller community than you realize!

ZFS, or Zetabyte File System, is the biggest component in U2. I've got a larger post on that coming, but the key features are:

• Removes the need for separate disk and volume management
• Removes the traditional link between partitions and filesystems
• Built-in RAID-Z provides RAID functionality on any disk (and even mixtures of disks)
• Built-in fault tolerance (99.99999999999999999 (17 9s) integrity
• Very fast
• The Z means 128 bits, or almost unlimited storage
• Easier management (most operations are just a few commands, some have been shortened from 28 under Solaris/ufs to just 5 with ZFS

Behind the scenes, though, there are some more subtle, but significant, changes.

For servers, the key elements are in improvement in the fault management systems that mean Solaris can detect and recover from errors in all AMD64 servers and a huge improvement in networking performance, sometimes up to 75% for TCP and 120% for UDP without requiring any changes to your applications.

On the client side, they have extended the support for x86 platforms, now a key environment, including a better system for creating and mounting filesystems (previous solutions required three separate steps, from fdisk, Sun's partition label and then the filesystem) and improvements in the desktop environment, such as Real Player support.

That's all great stuff, but what does it actually mean when it comes to using it?

Well, on an x86 box, installation seems much slicker. I've now installed U2 within Parallels (read my Solaris 10 on Parallels tips), my Sun Ultra 3 Mobile Workstation (actually SPARC based) and a Sony Vaio Z1 with a Centrino chip. I had no problems with any of the installations, beyond the driver issues within Parallels required to get networking going.

The basic process is not vastly different from previous versions, but it did seem a lot quicker than I remember. Disk allocation is also easier, and part of the work Sun have done to improve the x86 support. Chris and I had a quick discussion on the process and it is definitely one of the key areas that they are trying to address. A combination of improved support (including native SATA drivers) and the longer term goal of making ZFS a bootable filesystem will make the process even easier. Certainly the odd tri-level booting process on x86 has gone now to be released with a much nicer and straightforward solution for booting and selecting the boot mode, based around the GRUB boot loader first included in the 1/06 release.

Once booted, your first impression is that Sun are really moving towards an operating system that is trying to be as desktop friendly as possible. I've been using Solaris in one form or another since Solaris 2 (SunOS was renamed Solaris 1) as a desktop and a server operating system. Solaris as a desktop is really no different from any other Unix, but the stock installs have never had the slick look offered by most Linux distributions; something that has changed with this release. Of course an improved interface within X came with Solaris 10, but there have been some nice cosmetic tweaks in U2.

Although the tweaks are minor, they make a difference to the point that I feel much more comfortable within Solaris 10 than in the previous version. I can't explain it, I know there aren't big differences, and yet somehow it feels like a much nicer environment to spend some time in. I'm still no fan of Gnome, and I wish that KDE was a more immediately accessible option (although Blastwave.org makes light work of the install).

The registration and software update systems also seem more straightforward in this release than I remember. If you are already registered on the Sun Developer Network, then you can register your new Solaris 10 unit and get access to the freely available update packages, in much the same way as you would with Windows, Mac OS X or many of the different Linux distributions.

Beyond these minor cosmetic issues, it is the responsiveness of the environment that feels different. On the Ultra 3 the original Solaris 10 was fast, but video and some network operations seemed to drag a little. Even minor operations, like opening an automount drive on NFS would seem to take a little longer to process.  That has simply gone away with this release. I've also found support for the laptop environments much better in this release.

The positioning of U2, and the priorities in terms of the features it provides, point to Sun being dedicated to two very significant areas. First, they are competing head-on within the server-space, normally the reserve of Linux. Remember that Solaris is now free, and through OpenSolaris source-free too, but the development and inclusion of ZFS and the networking improvements show that Sun continue to be serious about 'The Network is the Computer' and how much they want to be a part of the typical web serving platform; they even provide, as standard, pre-compiled versions of many of the tools we take for granted in the Linux space. My only complaint here is that the packages supplied are compiled with Sun's Sun Pro compiler, and this even applies to gcc. Unfortunately, you can get some odd effects with some packages when compiling them with gcc when the libraries you are using have not been compiled with gcc. You can probably trade that off with the fact that most of the software you will ever need is included.

Where Solaris is really beginning to shine is in the desktop arena. Last year, if you'd have asked me for a free OS to use on the desktop my answer would have been one of the Linux distributions, probably Gentoo or more likely Kubuntu. Solaris was available then, but it wouldn't have been my first choice.

Today, I'd be happy to recommend Solaris or OpenSolaris. There's a lot to like here, and it's one of the more stable and likable user environments. For most users, you need Mozilla, Thunderbird, and a range of development and deployment tools out of the box to keep most of the tinkers and hackers happy. There are still those who for religious or compatibility reasons might prefer Linux, and there are still some that I would recommend try Linux before Solaris/OpenSolaris, but possibly not many.

I'll have follow up reports on ZFS and other features in the coming weeks.