okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well …

Okay by now it is apparently obvious that Apple will never replace Microsoft’s share on the desktop because of their proprietary hardware agreements.  There are illegitimate solutions, like Pystar, but no serious push to allow anything other than the hardware that Apple gives that OK for to run OS.  In doing so Apple created a very strong brand because something other than the look and feel of the OS but the hardware as well gave Mac a somewhat, transcendental experience that worked for some but not so much for more sophisticated users that were trying to implement a platform on the cheap.

Windows provided that experience by creating a platform that pretty much worked on whatever hardware you wanted to, so you could slum it out a bit.  Yet Windows is still for the most part expensive software and is often bloated so you still need expensive hardware to get around efficiently, so no, still not a viable solution.  So now here comes Sun with OpenSolaris, and critics seem to think that Sun should have gotten behind Linux, like everyone else has, but no, uh uh.

The smartest thing Sun ever could have done was to avoid getting behind the Open Source product, like everyone else in information technology had digressed towards doing, and offer their own product.

Who cares if big corporations are behind an open source product.  When I run Ubuntu or Fedora yeah I know large corporations are behind them and I may or may not have to pay for support.  I definitely have to pay for support for Red Hat’s enterprise product, and that is okay, because I would much rather an IT department actually pay for someone well trained on how to help them than to be searching and pecking around Google looking for help.

Sun is doing everything for free on the surface, taking a loss here or there and redeveloping their flagship product into a free OS for x86 architecture, and it is a beautiful thing.  Who really cares that it has a fraction of the packages that Ubuntu has; most of those packages you will never use, never have a need for and offer no real added value to the OS!  Yeah Microsoft offers a lot of added features to, well all of their products, as well so who really cares.  Give me what I want, what I really need and nothing else!  Yet before you think I’m working for Sun or are just a fanboy I still have a few concerns though.

Where is the marketing of this product!  Are hobbysts going to be the guinea pigs here or is this product simply not ready for prime time.  People found out about Open Office the hard way but I can tell you this; it does what I need for it to do effectively without a lot of hassle.  I’m not out looking for something off of the new interface ribbon and it does the job done simply without a lot of hassle or configuration.

Can we expect the same from OpenSolaris?  Will it load up without a lot of configuration will it get it’s own interface, rather than ripping the look and feel of Ubuntu and will Sun integrate a two tiered support approach?  If I want to have a go at it I can check around in the forums, as I often do with Ubuntu, but if I need that extra level of support I can actually pick up the phone and call someone?  If Sun can offer a comprehensive offering and build on what they are doing with OpenSolaris there may finally be a viable answer to Microsoft on the desktop.

Again, Linux requires people to endure the abuse, narcissism, and straight up misanthropic view of geeks when it comes to support on-line.  Linux often needs to be configured, in which the best way is often through cutting and pasting code but people may want to actually click on some buttons here or there to get it work.  Finally, Linux is fragmented and there aren’t any clear answers on which distribution is better than the next, which interface to go with (KDU or Gnome), which kernel, and so on and so forth.  These are the known obstacles and the inaccessibility that stands between people who know absolutely nothing about computers and Linux.

IBM is behind Linux, as are a bunch of other companies, but for serious use in the enterprise not for playing solitaire at home.  So will Sun finally offer the olive branch to laymen at home who just want to turn the computer on and do something simple without paying for something?  The opportunity is there, but can Sun actually find a way to monetize OpenSolaris to some degree?  People still think that if you aren’t paying something that the technology is worthless.   So far Linux hasn’t done that great of a job of changing anyone’s opinion, doesn’t have any real incentive to do so financial or otherwise and doesn’t appear to be doing so at the end of the day.  But the bottom line remains; consumers need an efficient OS without a lot of the bloat that works that they do not have to maintain through antivirus software that doesn’t get even slower as time passes by.  They need something that is straight and to the point; here’s hoping that Sun finally gives that to them.