I believe in and enjoy technology, but I believe that it should serve people, not the other way around. I see technology as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
I downloaded and burned the ISO image of opensolaris 2006.09 to a CD. Then I checked the MD5Sum to make sure the downloaded image was good.
The installation went fine, but I noticed how sluggish opensolaris seemed. As far as the hardware opensolris needs to run on, I think my machine definitely falls into the "minimum" category. Ubuntu is so much more nimble, (it's downright snappy, actually).
I got opensolaris installed and booted up. First I wanted to verify that I was behind a firewall or set one up. Then I'd install any system updates. Finally, I'd install my Firefox plugins and lock down the browser. opensolaris has some other very advanced security features that I could research and implement later, if I felt the need.
Red Flag number one: I ran the update manager, but no updates are available. Maybe they update the images they offer for downloading frequently, but a lot of vulnerabilities have been discovered and patched since June of 2009. You would think there would be updates.
Red Flag number two: I searched the package manager for some kind of firewall application. "Nothing Found". Well there's always IP Filters for UNIX / LINUX systems. I'll just search their support forum for a tutorial, (my IP Filters is a little rusty). "Nothing Found". I am just not familiar enough with their forums yet, so I'll just do a Google search for a tutorial. "Nothing Found". I am burning up some time here. Rather than get frustrated, I'll move on to the browser.
Red Flag number three: I open Firefox ... hmmm ... version 3.1 beta 3. Ubuntu 9.10 runs version 3.5.6. Well, no big, I'll just install Flash. That's weird, it didn't install. No problem, I'll just find a tutorial. A little searching and aha! But wait ...
Red Flag number four: The straw. I register and create a login. I wade through the licensing "legalese" and then download a key and certificate. Then I need to follow this procedure:
"How to Install this OpenSolaris extras Certificate
1. Download the provided key and certificate files, called OpenSolaris_extras.key.pem and OpenSolaris_extras.certificate.pem using the buttons above. Don't worry if you get logged out, or lose the files. You can come back to this site later and re-download them. We'll assume that you downloaded these files into your Desktop folder, ~/Desktop/.
2. Use the following comands to make a directory inside of /var/pkg to store the key and certificate, and copy the key and certificate into this directory. The key files are kept by reference, so if the files become inaccessible to the packaging system, you will encounter errors. Here is how to do it:
$ pfexec mkdir -m 0755 -p /var/pkg/ssl
$ pfexec cp -i ~/Desktop/OpenSolaris_extras.key.pem /var/pkg/ssl
$ pfexec cp -i ~/Desktop/OpenSolaris_extras.certificate.pem /var/pkg/ssl
3. Add the publisher:
$ pfexec pkg set-authority \
-k /var/pkg/ssl/OpenSolaris_extras.key.pem \
-c /var/pkg/ssl/OpenSolaris_extras.certificate.pem \
-O https://pkg.sun.com/opensolaris/extra/ extra
4. To see the packages supplied by this authority, try:
$ pkg list -a 'pkg://extra/*'
If you use the Package Manager graphical application, you will be able to locate the newly discovered packages when you restart Package Manager.
Still Confused? Having Problems?
* Certificate Generator Help
* opensolaris.com Packaging Forum" (from "My Sun Connection" at https://portal.sun.com/cwplogin/login.jsp) You get the instructions after downloading the certificates.
Is it my imagination, or does this look like a roadblock specifically designed to scare people like me, (an average desktop user with some LINUX / UNIX experience), away? And by the way, in item number 2 "comands" is misspelled.
Impressions:
Ubuntu - Everything about it says, "Welcome new user. We want to share our knowledge and experience with you. Join us! We'll keep you secure and protected along the way. We've put a lot of time and effort into designing and implementing an operating system with a Graphical User Interface that will help you make the transition into the world of LINUX and Open Source software." It makes me feel really good about the contributions I make to the Free Software Foundation every time I install a copy. It makes me want to learn more and participate in other ways. It's so "open".
opensolaris - Everything about it says, "Only experienced UNIX users and administrators with access to some real hardware need apply. We're not here to babysit desktop users. GUI's are for wimps and idiots. We are Open Source, but we're a division of a huge corporation, so we have teams of lawyers covering our asses. As for securing your system, if you have to ask, you're on your own. What we really want to do is sell you something. It's what we do."
As for Fortress, it runs on top of the JVM, (Java Virtual Machine). I should be able to compile it and run it in Ubuntu. Let's face it ... I'm just an Ubuntu kind of guy.
My next blog entry: "The Attractive Universe".
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