blastwave.org
The idea of having nicely packaged, efficiently compiled and configured software is good, but the www.blastwave.org pkg-get Solaris software seems a better choice than the Sun "Cool Stack" to me.
The blastwave packages are easier to install they have a procedure for regular updates as new versions/security fixes become available. Everything is built with Sun Studio compilers. The packages work on Solaris 8/9/10.
I just learned about this cool stack stuff, so am I wrong? Does the cool stack software run faster than the equivalent blastwave packages (enough to make a difference?) I heard that the cool stack packages have better support for DTrace--what does that mean?
Just wondering, thanks.
# 1
Blastwave.org and CoolStack have slightly different targets, but they are also sharing some of the common tuning approaches as Dennis Clarke mentioned the other day on the opensolaris-discuss mailing list.
Be aware that blastwave.org targets Solaris 8 and later, so they compile with different flags and tools than CoolStack does. They also intentionally do not rely on some of the components built in to Solaris and instead package their own releases of some dependencies. This is what allows them to target Solaris 8 and later, but it means the testing, patches and optimization of those components that are part of Solaris need to be put specifically into the blastwave packages. Since blastwave doesn't patch releases, just rebuilds, it also means a somewhat significant change in one core library (as happened just over a year ago with OpenSSL), will cascade requiring lots of updates. This repackgaging of everything also means there will be a bunch of duplication between core Solaris 10/Solaris Express pakages and blastwave packages, meaning that /opt/csw directory will be quite big.
On whether or not one is faster than the other, I suspect CoolStack may be more optimized in some cases (uses later tools, etc.), but I don't have any data to support that.
Finally, while it's not all currently there, Sun will have developer and production support around the Solaris + AMP components of CoolStack. Some of this can apply to the equivalent blastwave components as well I believe, but not the production support.
When would you want to use one over the other? If you want quick, simple, disk-space-doesnt-matter installs, I'd use blastwave. If you have Solaris 8 or 9, I'd use blastwave. If you care about sqeezing out every last drop of performance, use Solaris 10 + CoolStack. If you want to have a path to production and developer support from Sun through the Solaris + AMP, use CoolStack.
Hope that helps,
- Matt
