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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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ilsa on Monday June 19 2017, @10:02PM (2 children)
Who is this reviewer and why should I care about his opinion? He clearly doesn't know jack about Solaris.
He basically did the equivalent of, "I'm driving this mac truck but it's crap cause it's not a car!"
Why does everything have to be "for the desktop"? Solaris isn't a desktop operating system. It was never designed to be a desktop operating system. It's a server and workstation operating system. Installing OpenIndiana to run desktop apps is like trying to use an MRI machine to find a screw you dropped on the floor.
How stable is it? How's the ISCSI support? How is ZFS performance while sharing files over NFS? Has ZFS features kept up feature parity with what's been doing with ZFS on BSD? THOSE are relevant questions. The only thing this blog writer did was prove how little he actually knows about operating systems outside of his little Dunning Kruger cave.
Hell, the single most value important question, whether it worked with systems that use UEFI, he *intentionally skipped*. The last version would only install on systems older than Haswell (I think it was Haswell... Please correct me if I'm wrong.)
We wanted to use OpenIndiana to run a NAS but we chose to abandon it because we couldn't install it on even vaguely new-ish hardware.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday June 20 2017, @12:07AM (1 child)
All very good points. Perhaps the most important is that it's a server operating system and workstation secondly. GUI stuff is more or less a convenience not a goal (I think). The dead give away is the collision with the command line. Essential to any professional operation. And this "had to type startx", it's a good thing because if the machine mounts your disks and then automatically starts the graphical environment only to crash repeatedly. Automatic start of graphical environment will not be a good thing. Not to mention the security implications.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:39AM
Exactly. I wouldn't dream of setting up any my system any other way than boot-to-command-line and startx to get X. Boot-to-graphics is infantile.