Very Computer

by **Terry L Ridde** » Sun, 08 Feb 1998 04:00:00

Hello;

Today, 6 Feb 1998, in the newsgroup, alt.solaris.x86, the
following message was posted:

<Begin Quote>
From Sun technical support ...

#Richard,
#
#Thank you for your request for driver support. Unfortunately,
Engineering has
#informed us that there will be no further driver development for
notebook
#computers.
#
#The NeoMagic NM2070 driver will not work with the NM2160.
#
#Further infomation will be available shortly on access1.sun.com
explaining the
#suspension of laptop support.
#
#Thank you,
#Sun Microsystems Technical Support
<End Quote>

There are companies that have been using Solaris/x86 on
laptops/notebooks running custom applications developed in-house.
I am currently working with one such company. With the above news
I have the following questions:

1. What approach should the Linux Community, Linux Vendors, and Linux
Developers take in informing these companies that Linux is able to
meet their need/requirement/want for UNIX(tm) on a laptop/notebook?

2. What development tools can we bring together to allow for a
shorter porting cycle from Solaris/X86 to Linux for these apps?
Both the client and I assumed (yes I know our first mistake ;-) )
that we would have a 4 to 6 month time frame to work with. With
today's news that time frame has basically gone to 0 (zero) months.
It is unfortunate that the developers of this application, developed
under AT&T Sablime and Nmake. What tools can be made available to
Linux developers which encounter these development tools during
application ports that will help make to port even a little easier.

3. For those apps that use STREAMS, what documentation can we bring
together to allow developers to learn enough about STREAMS in order to
rewrite that code using sockets? The other alternative would be to
complete the Linux STREAMS support as quickly as possible, while not
jeopardizing the stability, quality, and performance of Linux.

I am open to suggestions, comments, insights, etc.

--
Terry L. Ridder
Blue Danube Software (Blaue Donau Software)
"We do not write software, we compose it."

When the toast is burnt
and all the milk has turned
and Captain Crunch is waving goodbye
when the Big One finds you
may this song remind you that they
don't serve breakfast in hell
==Breakfast==Newsboys

by **Daniel Veilla** » Sun, 08 Feb 1998 04:00:00

[Posted and mailed]

Quote:> #Thank you for your request for driver support. Unfortunately,
> Engineering has
> #informed us that there will be no further driver development for
> notebook
> #computers.
[..]
> There are companies that have been using Solaris/x86 on
> laptops/notebooks running custom applications developed in-house.
> I am currently working with one such company. With the above news
> I have the following questions:

> 1. What approach should the Linux Community, Linux Vendors, and Linux
> Developers take in informing these companies that Linux is able to
> meet their need/requirement/want for UNIX(tm) on a laptop/notebook?

That's a good question. One way may be for Solaris/x86 unhappy customers
to send the fact that they are moving to another platform in the
solaris Newsgroups. I guess that the organisations promoting linux
(like Linux International) can't send a nice mailing to all the Sun's
customer (like SCO did to Linux customers some time ago). I guess our
best way to promote Linux is the Internet and the press (are we ready
for the Big Media ?).

Quote:> 2. What development tools can we bring together to allow for a
> shorter porting cycle from Solaris/X86 to Linux for these apps?
> Both the client and I assumed (yes I know our first mistake ;-) )
> that we would have a 4 to 6 month time frame to work with. With
> today's news that time frame has basically gone to 0 (zero) months.
> It is unfortunate that the developers of this application, developed
> under AT&T Sablime and Nmake. What tools can be made available to
> Linux developers which encounter these development tools during
> application ports that will help make to port even a little easier.

It really depend how tied to your environment your code is. There
is just no way to guess. I suspect that getting an Nmake compatible
make on Linux should be easy, so if you source code don't depend on
too many fancy features, you probably can use the common development
environment (GNU make + gcc + gdb) and use the extra tools for easier
debugging (DDD ...) and versionning (CVS, RCS and SCCS).
If you are really tied to your current developement environment,
you can consider the following:
- Continue the developement on the supported platforms and just
do recompilation and minimal debugging on Linux
- Ask the ditributor for a Linux version.
- Try to use a SCO version on Linux using the emulation stuff.

Quote:> 3. For those apps that use STREAMS, what documentation can we bring
> together to allow developers to learn enough about STREAMS in order to
> rewrite that code using sockets? The other alternative would be to
> complete the Linux STREAMS support as quickly as possible, while not
> jeopardizing the stability, quality, and performance of Linux.

Stream support is highly controversial, Streams can be used to do
non-standard networking stuff (raw packet handling for example), or
tty functionnalities. It can also be used as a mean to extend the
kernel functionnalities. The current Stream implementation I guess
is not complete enough to really support the "hacking" functionnality
you can found in some Stream implementation. In that case you will
probably have to modify your source code to use the Linux specific
way of doing the same thing. This is also probably your best bet
for the long term. It really depends what you're using Streams for.

Daniel

by **Shankar Unn** » Tue, 10 Feb 1998 04:00:00

> 1. What approach should the Linux Community, Linux Vendors, and Linux
> Developers take in informing these companies that Linux is able to
> meet their need/requirement/want for UNIX(tm) on a laptop/notebook?

The best way, obviously, is to enhance iBCS 2.x to support Solaris
2.4/X86 binaries on Linux. This obviously means other infrastructural
changes as well (STREAMS for one), but it could be really worthwhile
(esp. in leveraging already-ported Solaris software to Linux, the same
way as folks are running Oracle on Linux today by emulating SCO with
iBCS).

--

HP Performance Delivery Lab (ex-CLL) (408) 447-2851

by **Daniel Ridg** » Fri, 13 Feb 1998 04:00:00

Terry,

Try metrolink. An existing commercial X server for Solaris X86 may be just
the ticket here.

> Hello;

> Today, 6 Feb 1998, in the newsgroup, alt.solaris.x86, the
> following message was posted:

> <Begin Quote>
> From Sun technical support ...

> #Richard,
> #Thank you for your request for driver support. Unfortunately,
> Engineering has
> #informed us that there will be no further driver development for
> notebook
> #computers.

Very Computer

Will Linux fill void left by Sun?

Will Linux fill void left by Sun?

Will Linux fill void left by Sun?

Will Linux fill void left by Sun?

Will Linux fill void left by Sun?