The Rgister has a very interesting article on Solarisx86 today
Sun’s Linux killer shows promise
The article is a very good read and points to some things that need working on however in one paragraph the author discussed Solaris Patching, and I’d like to elaborate on that a bit.
- This is an area where Sun’s commitment to the x86 project, and the extent to which it intends to build a community around it, will show. … even its most basic support plan, which involves little more than free online updates, costs money. It’s hardly expensive, certainly, at $120 per year per socket, but Linux vendors give away this level of support for free. If Sun wants hobbyists contributing, then they’ll do well to give very basic support like online updates to non-commercial users. (We note that security patches are available for download and manual installation at no charge, however.)
When Solaris 10 Update 1 is released you will be able to get it the same way you get Solaris 10. That will include all the patches that have been released for Solaris 10. And you can upgrade to that for free.
What you get for $120 is access to those patches once they are created, you don’t have to wait for the next update to get them.
With Suse for example you buy the product and get free updates, with Solaris10 you get the product for free and pay for earlier access to non security updates.
The author mentions hobbyists. I don’t think hobbyists will really be using Solaris 10. They will likely use Solaris Express or even more likely Opensolaris, where they will get access to the latest stuff first, for free.
The article says that security patches are availble for manual installation. Thats true, however they are also available via Suns Update Manager tool for automated and scheduled download. This tool is freely available for Solaris10.
- Online updates should be free for non-commercial users. If you want people to stick with a product, especially early in its development, you can’t have them worrying that some security hole or bug they haven’t heard of has left them open to remote exploitation, or susceptible to some fatal error that might wipe out months of work. (You want me to trust your stuff? Then don’t leave me guessing.)
This paragraph is wrong. Lets be clear about this – Security updates are free. Either downloadable from sunsolve or through Sun Update Manager. Noone is being left without security updates. If you want bugfixes sooner than the next Solaris update then you need to buy support, if you can wait for the next Solaris Update then those fixes are free.
Update:Mike Riley over on the solarisx86 yahoogroup points out that hardware driver patches will be free. As well
as any patches the security or driver patches require.
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