[H-GEN] Free Solaris (was: package management systems.)

[Greg Black]

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Jason Parker-Burlingham wrote:

| Greg Black <gjb at gbch.net> writes:
| > Jason Parker-Burlingham wrote:
| > | I'm still wondering if it'd be worth my time to get the CDs and a
| > | spare disk to install it, just to learn how to run a Sun box.
| > | Opinions?
| > 
| > Depends where you are on your career path and where you plan to
| > go.
| 
| Well right now I would just like to get moving.  So I guess the
| question is "Is it worth the time and pain it would take to
| (re)install a Solaris 9 system and work on it?"  I wouldn't want to
| put that amount of time in and not have it be worth my time.

I think the answer is: "it depends" ...

I'm not seeking work where you are (or anywhere else, for that
matter), so I have not been reading the job ads in recent
times.  However, I'd be inclined to do that and to see how many
of the ones that seem interesting specify Solaris skills.  If
it's most of them, then yes.  Otherwise, what are they looking
for?

| I also don't like the idea of risking my data by tooling around with
| an unknown, but it'd be cheaper than a course (which I gather still
| aren't held in terribly high esteem).

I certainly don't have any time for skills gained via courses,
but I think I'm getting to be in (yet another) minority there.
Part of the answer will be an artifact of the way you best learn
stuff.  For me, playing around on my own, and reading books and
source code is the best way to learn.  Other people find formal
classes useful.

However, whatever I was doing, I would not be risking my data
with an experimental OS.  Either create some space for it as
part of a multi-boot thing and keep nothing that you care about
on the Solaris partition; or if you don't trust it (under your
guidance) not to clobber other bits of your disk, then get
another box or another disk for your experimentation.  Enough
hardware to do this can be obtained on the second hand market
for almost zero cost and can't be considered an obstacle really.

Greg

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