Solaris solidarity
Readers voice their opinions on Solaris tools and application availablity, CDE, Wabi, Solaris on Intel, and more
July 1996
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Solaris solidarityReaders voice their opinions on Solaris tools and application availablity, CDE, Wabi, Solaris on Intel, and more
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July 1996
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Respondents to our June survey about Solaris were more than ready and willing to share their attitudes about their beloved operating system. 400 readers cheered (and sometimes sneered) about Solaris on numerous issues -- from scalability and performance to porting and migration problems.
83 percent of the respondents use Solaris 2 on their desktops at work or school, and 93 percent use it on servers. Only 25 percent use Solaris 2 at home. Solaris 2 is most often run on SPARC v8 class systems (SPARCstation Classic, LS, 4...) at their places of business (77 percent). And most of our readers have already migrated to Solaris 2.5. 61 percent are currently using this latest version, while 34 percent are using Solaris 2.4.
In terms of software support, 42 percent rate it "good," 35 percent consider it "fair," and 11 percent think it's "poor." In any case, Solaris users believe their OS is less buggy (82 percent), faster (76 percent), and more scalable (78 percent) than other OSes they've used. 78 percent also said Solaris 2 contains the basic utilities and applications an OS of its kind should, and 64 percent agreed that Solaris 2 applications for SPARC are plentiful.
It's a different story for Solaris on Intel, however. Only 6 percent think there are enough Solaris 2 for Intel apps, while 26 percent feel there definitely aren't enough, and 68 percent just don't know. They also don't appear to have any experience installing Solaris on Intel computers (71 percent). Meanwhile, 83 percent find Solaris 2 easy to install on SPARC-based computers.
And Solaris users are loyal to almighty Unix. 60 percent don't think Sun should develop and sell a version of Windows NT for SPARC. 22 percent think Sun should, and 18 percent don't care.
Kudos go to Solaris 2 for maintenance, reliability, and security. 73 percent said Solaris 2 is easy to maintain, 91 percent consider it reliable, and 63 percent said it is secure.
The Common Desktop Environment (CDE) has made progress on the user interface front. 34 percent of Solaris users run CDE in comparison to those who use OpenWindows (42 percent). (Please see Reader Comments to find out why) Practically no one uses Wabi, the translator that allows users to run Windows apps. 50 percent never use it, and 29 percent rarely use it.
Be sure to review the file "Readers comment on Solaris" for more enlightening opinions about issues they face with Solaris today.--Carolyn W.C. Wong
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Number of respondents: 400
as of 8:00 a.m. on July 1, 1996
Yes: 82.7%
No: 17.3%
Yes: 25.4%
No: 74.6%
Yes: 92.6%
No: 7.4%
If you answered YES to any of the above, continue to the next question. If you answered NO to all of the above please skip to question 10
SPARC V7 class (SPARCstation 1, 1+, 2...): 8.3%
SPARC V8 class (SPARCstation Classic, LX, 4...): 77.4%
SPARC V9 class (UltraSPARC-based machine): 9.4%
Intel i486 class: 0.3%
Intel Pentium: 2.6%
Intel Pentium Pro: 0.3%
I don't use Solaris often at biz or school: 1.8%
SPARC V7 class (SPARCstation 1, 1+, 2...): 7.4%
SPARC V8 class (SPARCstation Classic, LX, 4...): 14.5%
SPARC V9 class (UltraSPARC-based machine): 0.3%
Intel i486 class: 1.6%
Intel Pentium: 8.7%
Intel Pentium Pro: 0.5%
I don't use Solaris often at home: 66.9%
Solaris 2.3 or earlier: 3.1%
Solaris 2.4: 34.1%
Solaris 2.5: 60.9%
I don't use Solaris often at biz or school: 1.8%
Solaris 2.3 or earlier: 1.4%
Solaris 2.4: 7.4%
Solaris 2.5: 22.9%
I don't use Solaris often at home: 68.4%
Good: 41.8%
Fair: 35.3%
Poor: 10.5%
duh, I don't know: 12.4%
The version of Solaris 2 I use most often contains more bugs than other
similar operating systems I've used.
Agree: 10.6%
Disagree: 82.3%
Don't know: 7.0%
The version of Solaris 2 I use most often is slower than other similar
operating systems I've used.
Agree: 16.3%
Disagree: 75.6%
Don't know: 8.0%
The version of Solaris 2 I use most often consumes more RAM than other
similar operating systems I've used.
Agree: 36.8%
Disagree: 42.0%
Don't know: 21.1%
The version of Solaris 2 I use most often is less scalable than other
similar operating systems I've used.
Agree: 3.4%
Disagree: 78.4%
Don't know: 18.2%
Solaris 2 contains the basic utilities and applications an operating system
of this type should.
Agree: 77.7%
Disagree: 21.0%
Don't know: 1.3%
Applications I need for Solaris 2 for SPARC are plentiful.
Agree: 64.4%
Disagree: 27.0%
Don't know: 8.6%
Applications I need for Solaris 2 for Intel are plentiful.
Agree: 6.1%
Disagree: 25.5%
Don't know: 68.4%
I find Solaris 2 easy to install on SPARC computers.
Agree: 83.2%
Disagree: 7.6%
Don't know: 9.2%
I find Solaris 2 easy to install on Intel computers.
Agree: 16.6%
Disagree: 12.9%
Don't know: 70.5%
I find Solaris 2 easy to maintain.
Agree: 73.4%
Disagree: 20.6%
Don't know: 6.0%
I find Solaris 2 reliable.
Agree: 90.6%
Disagree: 7.3%
Don't know: 2.1%
I find Solaris 2 secure.
Agree: 63.1%
Disagree: 14.4%
Don't know: 22.5%
I think Sun should develop and sell a version of Windows NT for SPARC.
Agree: 21.6%
Disagree: 60.4%
Don't know: 18.0%
CDE: 34.4%
Command-line (no windowing system): 7.4%
Motif: 10.0%
Openwindows: 41.9%
TWM: 5.9%
Never: 49.6%
Rarely (once a month or so): 28.8%
Often (once a week or so): 14.8%
Frequently (once a day or more): 6.9%
on most of your database servers?
Solaris 1/SunOS 4.1.x: 15.6%
Solaris 2: 67.5%
HP-UX: 1.5%
AIX: 0.5%
IRIX: 2.6%
Digital Unix: 0.3%
Windows NT: 3.1%
Novell NetWare: 5.6%
Other: 3.3%
on most of your desktops?
Solaris 1/SunOS 4.1.x: 13.6%
Solaris 2: 44.5%
HP-UX: 0.3%
AIX: 0.3%
IRIX: 1.5%
Digital Unix: 0.0%
Windows & Win 95: 29.6%
DOS: 0.0%
Windows NT: 5.1%
OS/2: 0.5%
Macintosh: 2.1%
Other: 2.6%
1 - 9: 16.9%
10 - 29: 23.1%
30 - 99: 31.5%
100 - 499: 23.8%
Not applicable: 4.6%
1 - 9: 4.1%
10 - 29: 3.3%
30 - 99: 7.1%
100 - 499: 15.8%
500 - 1999: 19.9%
2000 - 9999: 22.7%
more than 10,000: 22.9%
Not applicable: 2.8%
I don't know: 2.3%
Systems administrator: 41.2%
Programmer or developer: 22.1%
Netowrk administrator: 5.3%
Database administrator: 1.5%
Systems analyst: 2.0%
Webmaster: 1.8%
Consultant: 3.3%
Systems integrator: 4.8%
Other technical professional: 9.4%
Other manager: 3.3%
Student: 2.5%
Other: 2.5%
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