Ian about Project Indiana

Ian Murdock, the man behind Project Indiana writes about the target of his project:

So, the next time you read about how Project Indiana aims to make Solaris more “Linux-like”, keep in mind that what we’re actually “copying” is the distro model, not Linux itself—which, after all, is a kernel, and has nothing to do with the package management and so forth the distros (you know, like Debian) built above it. This, better than anything else, highlights the opportunity for Solaris: What people really know when they say they know “Linux” is the environment that exists around the Linux kernel—the distro—all of which Solaris can deliver, and more.

This matches to my opinion, that the biggest innovation of Linux isn´t part of the Linux kernel at all. But a mere copy of the install process would not impress me. I want a dpkg install on an alternate boot environment like in Solaris LiveUpgrade. That would be really handy. Think about a dpkg upgrade without fear to temporary brick you server, when something goes wrong while the installation of your kernel or something similar important goes wrong.