New Solaris installer looks promising
I downloaded the latest Solaris Express bits (build 70) and gave it a run on my VMWare instance at home. This is the first build that is using the new installer technologies (see the Dwarf Caiman project for more details). It is definitely a much nicer experience than the circa 1990 installer that Solaris currently comes with. I created a Flickr photo set that shows the installation screen sequence for those that don’t feel like downloading a 2.5gb ISO.
The Solaris installation team has put together a roadmap that goes through December of next year. It is nice to see the progress that is planned. While I love Solaris from a sysadmin perspective, the current installer/packaging/patching frameworks leaves a lot to be desired. I’m really happy that Sun is putting substantial resources into fixing the deficiencies in those areas and that there is an open dialog with the community.
For those of you using the official Solaris distribution, the “Whats new in Solaris 10 07/07” documentation has been published. Download bits should be hitting servers in the next few weeks.