All too often, technologies are pitted against each other in the popular imagination, and Linux and Solaris are no exception--"Linux vs. Solaris" certainly does make a catchy soundbyte.

Despite the juxtaposition, Linux and Solaris have much in common--both are open source, have common ancestry, and are similar enough that both users and developers can move back and forth between them with comparative ease. The "vs." mentality is caused as much by lack of understanding of the "other side" as anything else.

In this track, we will focus on the similarities between Linux and Solaris rather than the differences, the goal being to increase understanding of Solaris among Linux users and developers and vice versa. Where we discuss differences, these differences will be expressed in terms of "how we can learn from each other". We will also discuss the migration up the stack of developer platforms and address the question, "Do operating systems still matter?" The ultimate goal of the track is to change the conversation: Not Linux vs. Solaris, but open vs. closed.

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Sessions will include*:

What's a Linux guy doing at Sun?  
Speaker:
Ian Murdock, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

In this session, Sun chief OS platform strategist Ian Murdock will introduce the track. He will begin with the question: "What do people mean when they say they want 'Linux'?", posit that the answer is not "an OS kernel", and discuss the ramifications of that answer on Sun's OS strategy. He will also ask (and hopefully answer) the question "Are operating systems still relevant?" given the movement up the stack of popular developer platforms such as Java, PHP, and Ruby on Rails. (Spoiler: The answer is "yes". Ian will explain why.)

Inside the Sausage Factory: Engineering Ubuntu and Solaris  
Speaker:
Jeff Bailey, Canonical
Bart Smaalders, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

How are changes introduced into operating systems? Canonical's Jeff Bailey and Sun's Bart Smaalders will walk through the engineering and release processes of Ubuntu and Solaris, respectively. Particular attention will be paid to each operating system's unique challenges--in the case of Ubuntu, how a multitude of independently developed technologies are integrated; and in the case of Solaris, how its rigorous backward compatibility is preserved. An interactive discussion will follow to explore the positives and negatives of each model as well as what each might learn from the other.

Next-generation Solaris: Hands on with OpenSolaris and Nexenta
Speaker:
Joe Little, Stanford University, The Nexenta Experience  
Don Kretsch, Sun Microsystems, Inc., OpenSolaris OS  

What is the OpenSolaris community doing to win back developer mindshare? In this session, we will look at Solaris from the developer perspective and highlight recent work to once again make Solaris the preferred software development platform. The session will begin with an overview and demo of Sun's OpenSolaris-based operating system for software developers that bundles NetBeans, Sun Studio, and other developer technologies. The session will also include an overview and demo of Nexenta, a "GNU/Solaris" distribution based on OpenSolaris and Ubuntu, as well as an overview of how and why Nexenta is being used at Stanford University.

Up the Stack  
Speakers:
Josh Berkus, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Robert Lor, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Harpreet Sing, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tim Bray, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Greg Luck, Wotif.COM

Developer platforms of choice are increasingly moving up the stack. Think about it: How many cool apps have been written to the OS in the past 5 years? How many cool apps have been written for the new "Web 2.0" platform in that same period? Many developers these days never even see the operating system. Does that mean the OS doesn't matter? In this session, we will look at a variety of "up the stack" developer technologies, including GlassFish, AMP, and Ruby on Rails, and explore how even though the OS is invisible to these developers much of the time, it very much still matters.

We'll cover:

• How we doubled SMP Scalability in PostgreSQL 8.2 Using DTrace (Josh Berkus and Robert Lor)
• An overview of GlassFish v1 and its availability in Ubuntu 7.04 (Harpreet Singh)
• AMP, Rails, Java, and Web framework trade-offs: A quick look at the options and, more important, the criteria that might help you choose among them (Tim Bray)
• A comparison of ehCache and memcached() (Greg Luck, Wotif.COM)

Note: preliminary, content subject to change.