Welcome to openSolaris !!

Hey guys,

Can't wait to write to you about this. Yesterday, I got onto the net to find out some details about SCJP. When I visited Sun's site, I saw a small advert of 'openSolaris'. Now, I had heard of Solaris. But this seemed something interesting... Curiosity got the better of me, and I clicked on the link. The site seemed attractive, and anything from Sun is always welcomed here with open arms. So, there was the link to download a Live CD. It seemed like a very interesting proposition, especially for someone who has got a 40 GB disk partitioned into 5 drives, with no more space left for OS installation !!

Now, until yesterday, I had Fedora 8 as my default OS. And even today, I have Opera as my default browser. Knowing things to be in safe hands (Fedora, Opera, Sun), I started what was to be a night-long download. However, I had never done this kind of thing before. Granted, I have an unlimited internet connection, so, technically, even a failed download should not matter that much. But the fact that the PC coninues to burn power and heat up all through the night, after abandoning the pursuit of a download, somehow makes for a depressing thought.

Anyways, those things apart, I started the download. Now, I have a 256 kbps connection. So, I wanted to get a realistic time estimate of the entire download, and also check on the real speed I was getting. Carefully, I chose a Dutch university server for downloading over FTP. But it didn't give a speed high enough to untilise my entire (though humble) bandwidth. After trying several options, i finally found the best one: BitTorrent download. Clicking on it also led me to discover that Opera (9.5 and later, for sure) has got a built-in torrent handler. So, there, the download started, and was giving a 'phenomenal' rate of 27 KBps (theoretical maximum for my connection is 30 KBps). The estimated time was 8 hours, which meant the file would be downloaded by the time I wake up next morning (I started the download a little before midnight)

When I got up the next morning, the Live CD ISO image was downloaded. Logging in to Windows XP (yeah, thats where I still like to burn my discs from, using old faithful Nero...) I burnt the CD image. Being a Live CD, I immediately inserted the CD for a quick preview, before I even had my breakfast. I expected to see something new, something great, something fascinating !!

However, all hopes were crashed, as I saw the now very familiar Linux-like desktop (I mean GNOME). Subsequently, I discovered that Solaris is also UNIX based, and although architecturally far apart from Linux, it shares the same desktop environment. Neat !

As i write this, I'm at the end of a day of seemingly endless discoveries. Since a Live CD won't remember your customisations the next time you boot up, I've started installing applications on my 8GB Kingston pen-drive (which, incidentally, I bought for a steal, at INR 1,000 ). Here's how I'm going about it:

1. I've created a /os folder at the root of the drive
2. Next, I've created the folders /os/fedora, /os/solaris, /os/win_xp, to house the programs (runnable copies, NOT setups ) belonging to each of those OSs
3. Within each of these direcories, I've created a app directory (e.g/ /os/solaris/app)
4. Then, I've extracted the TAR files into this directory. (Those who are well-versed with Linux will instantly recognise that applications in the UNIX world do not essentially requireto be setup; just extract the TARballs, and run the program file from its location.)

Thats it. Now, althought, the OS might not remember my customisations, the individual aplications will, as the pen-drive is a read-write media. Besides, I'm saved the hassles of installing these apps over and over again. Now, wherever I go, I carry my apps, ready-to-use, with me! What could've been better?

Now, I'm also exploring the possibility of having a user directory located directly on my pen-drive. Its neither a complex nor a tedious task. But I'd like to rename my drive, something that can be done only in Windows. I'll now logout, get the thing done, and then update you again. Tada.....!