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posted by n1 on Monday June 19 2017, @08:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the disappointing dept.

OpenIndiana is a free and open source Unix operating system derived from OpenSolaris and based on illumos.

Curmudgeonly software reviewer Dedoimedo AKA Igor Ljubuncic reports:

Conclusion

I find the test today somewhat sad. Sure, I did accomplish what I needed, but it gave me no joy, and no hope that this operating system can even even remotely compare against any Linux. Even CentOS is lightyears ahead. In the server environment, it may have its uses, but it completely misses the mark on the desktop.

Package management, applications, it all just feels raw, alien, unfriendly. What do you do if there are problems with drivers, or hardware? Where do you find the latest apps, and this isn't just an act of mercy by a volunteer? What about compatibility on actual hardware. The fact I was not willing to commit my test laptop also tells something.

You can master and tame OpenIndiana, to a level. But it is mostly a futile exercise in obstinacy. All of the stuff we've done above are more or less a given in Linux, and have been so since about 2007. It's like driving an old car and trying to match its abilities to new, modern technology. Unless you're into antiques, it's not really worth it.

The worst part, I guess, isn't the specifics. That can be sorted. It's the absolute lack of progress since 2011, in the desktop space. Underneath it may be wonders, but if you cannot use the system, then it's worthless. Lots of the stuff from the previous version have been removed [or] made less accessible, but we get nothing new in return. So it is nerdier and harder than before, and that's a grim sign of a future that has no place on the desktop. This seems to be true with other operating systems in this family, too. Just not worth the effort. Stick with Linux. Grade wise, 4/10.


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  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday June 19 2017, @02:01PM (1 child)

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday June 19 2017, @02:01PM (#527908) Journal

    The direction where Linux is going is "nowhere". Or better, it is NOT where Ubuntu and Redhat are driving toward. Linux is not "going" somewhere... Somebody is driving to oblivion, somebody else is missing the point. Desktop is going to die... Soon(er) than anybody expects, there will only be "power users" who will either use Windows/MacOSX or Linux, which will not care or know how to avoid the mess you are talking about. The rest 95% of people will be happy with tablets and phablets.

    I doubt the desktop will ever fully die. The more likely scenario is a (oh jesus im about to use a buzzword, forgive me lord!) convergence of the tablet and desktop. Instead of a dedicated desktop, a tablet would allow a wireless keyboard and mouse, probably bluetooth, and use wifi to stream it's screen to a larger monitor, probably a TV or desktop monitor.

    The other scenario is the PC AT* formfactor dies off and we move to bookshelf style PC's like the Mac Mini or raspberry pi. We already have such high levels of integration that the SoC has made discreet PC components mostly obsolete. Plug in the little box, hook to a monitor and you're finished. There will be a point where the divide between GPU and CPU will be gone and all we will have are APU SoC's. So long as there are high speed I/O ports like USB C and no locking down of the firmware (e.g. locked to secure booting windows/android/fuschia only) I am fine with that.

    The "future" of linux is Android(*), which is much worse than SystemD.
    (*) until Google will remove the Linux kernel, which is in the works.

    The future of Linux is server side web/iot/cloud/container/buzzword. It was never going to make it to the desktop because it has and always will suck at that (And I 'm a Linux/*nix/plan 9 fan).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @12:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 20 2017, @12:41AM (#528252)

    Yeah??

    M$ has dropped the ball so many times that nobody pays them any mind any more WRT mobile.

    Apple split desktop and mobile.

    Ubuntu dropped Ubuntu Touch in their recent rejiggering.
    A group has picked up that but their website is such a complete mess that I don't know how they expect to accomplish anything.
    They don't even have dates on things on their site. [ubports.com]

    Tizen is going nowhere fast and doesn't seem at all interested in convergence.

    In the future, is everybody going to be running Google's stuff?

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]