Solaris 10 x86 is impressive but needs more h/w support
I know what you're thinking, another hardware support gripe. :)
First of all, I'd like to say that despite not being able to use my network card, view DVDs, use my sound card or laser printer with Solaris 10, I am extremely impressed with the professional GUI design and the ease of use of its interface. It puts some so-called GUIs in Linux to shame, bigtime. It actually feels like a professional O/S instead of a hacker's-throw-together O/S like some Linux distributions I've seen (no offense to volunteers in the linux community, but I did have to pay money for some popular distributions quite some years ago. I expected more for my money at the time).
Considering I got Solaris 10 for free (along with Star Office), I consider it a veritable steal that was worth the download time and the five burnt cds (companion cd too). If linux didn't exist and I had a little more money, I definitely would have invested in a complete hardware supported system to run Solaris 10 perfectly (even buy an ultrasparc if I had to :) ). Maybe one day.
Since my juvenile 7-hour a night game-playing days are over, there is very little motivation other than hardware support for me to consider using Windows XP. If all my current hardware worked under Solaris 10, I wouldn't be dual booting with Windows XP anymore. It seems like I'll have to give Linux another chance until Solaris 10 receives more support. I'm not planning on upgrading to any other future O/Ses offered by Microsoft. I paid enough of my money and security update download time in that direction.
In terms of what I've seen so far of Solaris 10 and considering that there is supported hardware available to do anything you need to get done, I applaud Sun for their excellent work and give them my 10. If I ever learn enough assembler to write device drivers for Solaris 10, I may put in my 2 cents as far as helping out with h/w support as well.
