Solaris or Linux?

[Aceramic]

I've got a spare hard drive in my computer, and absolutely nothing to use it for... So I figured I might as well put another OS on it. Right now I'm looking at Solaris, or possibly Linux. Free is a must. ;)

Anyone have reasons for why I should do one or the other? (At the moment, I'm leaning towards Solaris)

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

I say Linux because there very many distros out there to fit your needs. I like unbuntu. Slax linux is also cool. Mepis is another one. Fedora would be good as well. Gentoo is a little more hands on. PCLinusOS is another one though haven't tried it in a while.

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. Many distros have "Live CDs" meaning you can burn an iso to a disc and run it off the disc without actually installing it. Kind of like, "I want to try this but don't want to take the time to install it".

[liorean]

Solaris, from what I've heard about is, is a very picky OS. Small things often mean it doesn't work at all, and if you're installing programs in the wrong order, that may mean none of them will work.

Linux, well, you can't make a statement about it as a whole, the different distributions have more differences than you can find between Mac and Windows.

Another alternative you could consider is {Free|Open|Net}BSD. I've heart a whole lot of good stuff about FreeBSD.

[oesxyl]

I've got a spare hard drive in my computer, and absolutely nothing to use it for... So I figured I might as well put another OS on it. Right now I'm looking at Solaris, or possibly Linux. Free is a must. ;)

Anyone have reasons for why I should do one or the other? (At the moment, I'm leaning towards Solaris)
if you have space on disk you could try both. I also suggest as Liorean say, one of the BSD os. Another option, a little strange maybe but interesting, try Hurd, :)
That means: 22-27 G for each * (linux + solaris + bsd + hurd) rounded to 100 G - 125 G, :)
Nothing compare with your own impression about each of them.

If is only about solaris and linux, I say linux, :)

best regards

[Spookster]

Solaris is not really designed for home use. And unless something has changed Solaris is not free.

A distro of linux would be your best bet. And if you are new to the world of linux/unix then I would suggest sticking with either Fedora or Ubuntu for your introduction.

[liorean]

Solaris is not really designed for home use. And unless something has changed Solaris is not free.Solaris has been free for years. It's the Sun server packages (which include and are built on top of Solaris) that require you to take out a second and third mortage.

[Apostropartheid]

I'm not very familiar with Linux purely because Ubuntu suddenly refused to recognize my USB WLAN stick, so I can't access the Internet. However, when I did use it it was simply amazing, and is very easy to adapt to from Windows.

As things go you have no excuse not to have a Linux Live CD anyway. They are incredibly useful if your OS doesn't boot. They're a must.

I haven't tried Solaris because of its massive download size...

[Spookster]

Solaris has been free for years. It's the Sun server packages (which include and are built on top of Solaris) that require you to take out a second and third mortage.

and any support that goes with it. I seem to recall now them making it free but charging for support and any packages like you said.

I still would say linux is the better choice here. It's all free and likely more compatible with home systems. Not to mention that updates are readily more available and easier to install. Fedora and other distros have updates down to the point that they are as easy as the MS Windows auto update feature.

[Apostropartheid]

And you can see whether you like the distro before installing it with the ones that have Live CDs, too =)

[Aceramic]

Well, although I'd be downloading Solaris 10 (The free "Express" version, or whatever they call it.), I've actually used Solaris 8 before (to an extent, because I have a SunBlade 100 sitting under my desk... Which I might be interested in selling if anyone wants it. ;) ), so that's a bonus for Solaris. I've never used Linux before.

And I have a total of "about" 68-or-so GB available... It's a 74 GB WD Raptor, but you know... That doesn't mean you can actually use 74 GB. :/

To be honest, I'll most likely only be using it for fun, on the internet and stuff... It's not like I'll be doing any gaming on it or anything.

[rick222]

I would say linex , because Solaris is hell lot expensive , i think its around $20,000....

[liorean]

I would say linex , because Solaris is hell lot expensive , i think its around $20,000....Or not, as I said above.

[Cooder]

I See linux Batter .

[firepages]

If you already have Solaris to play with on the server then why not try linux? there is little difference at the command line anyway + the ease of use/updates etc already noted above.

I am a Debian/Ubuntu fan so I would suggest that or perhaps Fedora.
Either way, just grab one, then you can try other distos via vmware etc, though you are rather short on HDD space.

[jkd]

Installing (Free|Net|Open|Dragonfly)BSD can be a very difficult experience. For a recreational/educational experience, I don't think BSD offers anything over Linux. Ditto with Solaris, even though there is some really cool technology under the hood (ZFS, Dtrace, etc). If you reallllly want to use a Solaris kernel, look into Nexenta: http://www.nexenta.org/os
The GNU userland (what you would find in a linux distro installation) is very useful (and educational). Nexenta just uses that with the OpenSolaris kernel (instead of the Linux kernel).

My first experience with *nix in general was with an old version of Mandrake-Linux; I moved to Ubuntu for a while (highly recommended), and just setup a Gentoo installation on a virtual machine on my mac last week for testing purposes. Don't do Gentoo without some serious *nix experience, though emerge is one of the most wonderful utilities I've ever used (far superior to urpmi, and I would venture apt-get as well).

My advice is install Ubuntu. I think it is easily the best desktop Linux experience you can find. If you don't like GNOME, install Kubuntu.