About 6 months ago I commented in OpenSolaris + Ubuntu = Nexenta:

I think that Sun should take a long hard look at what Nexenta is doing and strongly consider pursuing a similar course [with Solaris]. Debian truly is the way forward. Debian provides a rock upon which all other operating systems can be built.

Perhaps that was a moment of prescience on my part. Or maybe I'm overly optimistic right now... But today Sun seems very friendly with Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Mark Shuttleworth were on stage together at JavaONE and announced a number of important things. ZDNet reported this comment by Jonathan Schwartz,

The odds are quite good that we will be aggressively supporting the work that Ubuntu is doing...In the hardware we ship, I don't want to be Solaris only, because then I will just define my market to be smaller than the opportunity. I think you should expect to see more of the relationship, and stay tuned.

A curious project titled Nexenta was created in Canonical's Launchpad by Mark Shuttleworth a while back... Maybe it's nothing... Maybe it's something...

It's been my impression for quite a while that the Ubuntu June 2006 LTS (aka Dapper Drake) release would support the Sun Niagara hardware platform. There are mentions here or there from people working on it. Launchpad shows that SPARC support is implemented in some fashion in Ubuntu. I don't think the intention would be hum-drum SPARC support. Enthusiasm for Linux on Sun SPARC seems to have been pretty dead for the last 3-4 years. Not that it wouldn't be welcomed by many SPARC computer owners. In the past, Intel and AMD have been so much cheaper and better supported by Linux. Installing Linux on SPARC is about as painful as installing Solaris on Intel. The hardware driver support is abysmal in either case. Niagara is a different beast, though. Especially if Sun intends to help promote Ubuntu on Niagara. Niagara and Ubuntu could become a very compelling combination indeed.

But, wait, I said Linux tends to have lousy support for Sun SPARC hardware. But Nexenta is Ubuntu with a Solaris kernel... Hey, what if...Ubuntu could use the Solaris kernel and hardware drivers on SPARC (and thus Niagara). Oooh, now there's a mind bender. Keep your eyes peeled for that one... If my radar is truly working then that's exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to see. Maybe not for another release or two but certainly well before the next Ubuntu LTS (long term support) cycle begins.

Labels: computers, linux, unix