Digital Stronghold

Sun admitted that Solaris’ late move to open source is a big mistake. They said that while they were busy making money, they were already losing the server market, Linux is taking over very fast.

Having tried several versions of Solaris and OpenSolaris, in my honest opinion, opening its source code to the public is a good move.

What’s cool in OpenSolaris 2008.5?

1. IPS - a network package management system that resembles an apt-get type of command. Thanks to Ian Murdock.

2. Bourne Again Shell - C Shell is no longer the default one. This makes majority of the Linux users comfortable when shifting to OpenSolaris.

3. OpenSolaris Developer Expert Assistance - A dedicated online support service for developers that provides technical assistance for code support, programming questions, diagnostic advice, how-to’s and best practice guidance.

4. OpenSolaris Subscription Support - Telephone and online technical support. Provides automatic notification of security updates.

A research group from Ateneo de Manila University invited developers in a Focused Group Discussion(FGD) on FOSS development at BCD Pinpoint, 4th Floor Bloomingdale Building, 205 Salcedo Street, Legazpi Village, Makati. The FGD was divided into two, the first had it on Feb. 26 and the second on Feb. 28, which targeted freelancers and employees respectively.

The topics were:

1. Software / Deployment stack usage
2. FOSS advocacy
3. FOSS community

Technical discussions were already going on before the formal one started. Michael Cole, an I.T. Manager, who was one of the speakers during Software Freedom Day 2007, gave a lot of his insights regarding the use of FOSS on the desktop space. He also revealed some of FOSS’s limitations at its current state. Re Alvarez, a system administrator, laid out some of his plans for FOSS usage on the company that he is working with. He gave out a lot of tips for newbies. Archie Cortes, a FOSS advocate and a full-time user since 1998, clarified the edge of FOSS against proprietary software.

I have learned a lot from these brilliant people and I have noted some of their FOSS marketing strategies.

Many thanks to Rick Bahague Jr. for the invitation and the 1 GB Kingston DataTraveler give-away.