I’m thinking about switching from frugalware, and I want to develop, but last time I had trouble with a few hardware issues. My network had problems and my sound card didn’t work (solved the sound one now though, had to select analog audio output over digital) Do you think it would be worth the effort to switch? Also, how difficult is it to install from source? I know that in linux it’s really hard (I’ve tried – it gets messy) and in FreeBSD it’s super easy!

Also, should I go with 64-bit or is it super buggy and unsupported like in linux?

>> Most Popular Open Source Non-Linux Based Operating Systems [List]

stress is on ‘Popular’
so plan 9 and others do not even come near

no. of { OpenSolaris , FreeBSD , OpenBSD } production systems

Apparently Plan9 is used for A FEW, VERY BIG installations that handle a lot of online users. Most Open Source OSs are amateur projects & presumably would be not be a good bet for a startup business.

Rather than risking an argument with what you chose to write about or what you call the article I’ll just put some links for readers wanting to read about lots of OSs. (And depending on the definition of OS there’s plenty of self-hosted software environments I haven’t spotted with a quick scan of the first one).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operating_systems

http://www.osnews.com/resources

[1] SunStudio tool chain (including DTrace integration with SunStudio).

[2] Mature boot enviroment (BE) based patching/upgrading of system (basically ZFS + rollback support).

[3] Mature multi-processing (e.g. SMP/big-iron) support.

–> e.g. Solaris (SPARC version) was 64-CPU big-iron scalable back in 1996 and the x86/SPARC versions of (Open)Solaris code are essentially the same apart from the CPU abstraction.

The multi-processing potential is relevant since the trend for newer systems has been to increase the number of CPU cores since hitting the CPU GHz barrier on Intel/AMD CPUS.

[4] The same operating system (i.e. (Open)Solaris) that has first-class-support across all of Sun’s hardware line (desktop/workstations –> low/mid/high-end servers –> storage servers –> enterprise servers).

This reinforces the notion of (Open)Solaris’ stability/maturity.

For an OpenSolaris developer the added advantage is that code is instantly portable across all this well supported hardware.
If scalablity of x86 system is not good enough then I would direct my clients towards SPARC systems.

For an OpenSolaris administrator the added advantage is that the same administration tasks are instantly applicable across all this well supported hardware.

Contrast this with the “1001″ Linux distros out in the wild.

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To digress abit …
The same could not be said for Linux on IBM hardware or Linux on HP hardware since these companies still maintain their closed-source UNIX systems (AIX and HP-UX respectively). I have no issue with a company maintaining their own closed-source solutions (I have my own closed-source solutions that I rely on) but I do object to these companies frowning on the open-sourcing of Solaris because of their “open-source Linux is the way” propaganda while hypocritically still pushing their closed-source operating system to clients implying that “Linux is not meant for you”. At least Sun’s stands behind (Open)Solaris implying that it is good for “everywhere-use”.

Remember, Sun open-sourced it’s flagship operating system while
IBM/HP-UX have not. IBM/HP have done a “feel good” embrace of Linux so that people think less (or not at all) about the open-sourcing of AIX/HP-UX.

Remember, Sun open-sourced their commercial Solaris.
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[5]
Access to a commercially proven system.
Sun designed it’s hardware/software based on a real-world commercial needs which happens to suit the needs of the desktop/workstation user/coder as myself.

For Linux, Linus Torvalds remains the ultimate authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel. What criteria does Linus use to affect the evolution of Linux ?

The fact of the matter is that Sun has good kernel/system engineers and had to create a powerful operating system to handle real-world constraints backed by real-world warranties. Their experience coupled with the OpenSolaris community developers has promoted a focussed path for the evolution of the OpenSolaris code base while maintaining a good level of volatility (creativity) for this evolutionary path.

most common ones are ( OpenSolaris , FreeBSD and OpenBSD )

DTrace is AMAZING. There is nothing like it in Linux as yet.

Please elaborate..

A unix-clone like Linux can only fantasize about (or attempt to clone) the innovative tecnologies present in a UNIX system like (Open)Solaris. T

My C/C++ development experience has involved DOS/Linux/MS Windows/OpenSolaris from early 1990′s and the best development platform for me has been OpenSolaris.

I have migrated people from MS Windows to Linux then finally to OpenSolaris and there is no way I would suggest a startup to go the Linux way as a first choice. My advice would be to checkout OpenSolaris first, then the BSD’s and then a Linux distro.