[ale] SMP support for CentOS 4.0 i386

[Chris Ricker]

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005, Jonathan Rickman wrote:

> On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 20:50:54 -0500 (EST), Chris Ricker
> <kaboom at oobleck.net> wrote:
> 
> > free, if you don't mind no support and have one of the approximately 3 PCs
> > (or pretty much any Ultrasparc) it runs on. 
> 
> Ok, let's stop right there. S10 runs on darn near every x86 server
> produced in the past three years by the big three (HPaq, IBM, Dell)
> and I have it up and running on a variety of mainstream desktops as
> well as one rather obscure laptop.

Runs for some definition of runs -- basic host support for servers is 
there by now, but peripheral support varies widely. It's certainly not at 
the point of "grab any random Linux server on your floor, reinstall it 
with Solaris, and it'll actually work". I work in an EMC shop. You can't 
attach Solaris 10/Intel to EMC. I have 3ware cards in some Linux servers. 
Solaris 10/anything doesn't support them. The list goes on, and on, and 
on.

For desktops / laptops, even an install is a lot more iffy. Especially for 
laptops with the video of the week chipsets, bazillion USB bridge 
variants, and such. I've tried 4 models so far. Only one successfully 
installs, and it's a 3 year old NEC.  I think the fact that Sun Solaris 
team members are currently openly, non-jokingly advocating that you get 
wireless access from Solaris 10 by buying a separate WAP for each box you 
want to attach, configure it as a bridge, and connect to it over ethernet 
really says it all :-)

(and yes, real wireless is coming, and you can get it already now if you 
know who to ask, but it's still hilarious)

I'm a Solaris admin at least as much as I'm a Linux admin. It's a great OS 
and I'm thrilled with a lot of the new stuff in 10, but it's 
a little disingenuous to suggest Solaris/Intel is in nearly the same space 
as Linux/Intel for hardware or software support.

Will that change? Perhaps. Linux was once where Solaris/Intel is now, 
after all. I don't really see it happening in a huge way - there's little 
incentive for 3rd party hardware and ISVs to support it since Linux is 
good enough that they can just tell customers to go there if they want 
Unix on Intel, or to install Janus (Linux binary compatibility layer for 
Solaris 10) whenever Sun actually releases that. It's the same problem the 
FreeBSD camp has. At least FreeBSD hasn't killed the product, only to 
bring it back 2 years later and then have the additional uphill battle to 
try to convince ISVs that this time they really do mean for it to be 
successful....

> Furthermore, in almost any context, S10 support is cheaper than RHAS. 
> The facts are the facts.

Not really. Consider my 4-way Opteron (ironically, a Sun v40z) running 
RHEL 3 AS. Premium support for it is about $1200 / year. Solaris 10 
Premium support for that would be $1440 list (so far it doesn't look 
like there will really be discounts for Solaris 10 software only support, 
unlike for SunSpectrum support). Or a 2-way Dell PowerEdge 2850 running 
RHEL - RH standard support was about $550, Sun Standard would be $480. 
About the only server tier where Solaris support is noticeably cheaper is 
1-way boxes, and who uses those anymore?

later,
chris