A Very Large Task for a Very Large Book

The book was written by three senior engineers at Sun who have all played a major role in the production of OpenSolaris.  Their areas of expertise cover most every aspect of Sun’s operating system.  Beginning with running the operating system on your desktop and hooking devices from printers to digital cameras as an end user, to system administration and development using OpenSolaris.  The book covers some of the more advanced features of OpenSolaris like ZFS, DTrace, virtualization, web services, application development, and much more. This is no small task, and this is no small book which weighs in at close to 1000 pages.

Because OpenSolaris is the Open Source brother to its Data Center capable counterpart Solaris, with all of its features and more, OpenSolaris is an operating system of great interest to casual users, hobbyists, and professional system administrators.  OpenSolaris can run in a virtual machine such as VirtualBox or can be installed on most Intel and now some Sparc systems.  Anyone can download the operating system, install it and use it for learning more about Solaris and OpenSolaris, or developing real applications on an enterprise class operating system for no charge at all.  The source code is even freely available and if you are adventurous enough, you can even build and package your own distribution as many people have.  This makes OpenSolaris similar to Linux in this way and there’s even a large community of developers and contributors both internal to Sun and outside independent developers.  It is very different and distinct from Linux in that it is the first proprietary operating system to make the transition to Open Source and it is an operating system which is completely descended from Unix SVR4.

The challenge the OpenSolaris Bible Translation Project faces is to translate the material into Japanese, review it with all levels of Japanese users and engineers, and ensure it is correct before going to publication.

The Approach

The book is being translated into Japanese right now.  That’s the first step.  The next is to have the translation reviewed by engineers and users who are bi-lingual in English and Japanese.  Then once the material is reviewed, it should then go for final review and printing.

The approach to reviewing the translated text is a bit unique.  The material will be taught as a class using the English text as the course textbook.  The Japanese translation will be provided to the classroom attendees to review and make notes.  The material will be presented in a classroom format with the presentation materials in English and Japanese.  In addition to the classroom presentation, there will also be hands-on labs in the class and take-away exercises.

While the project leader, Ken Okubo, is working coordinating and translating the English text into Japanese, I am working on building the classroom portion.  I am writing a classroom presentation for each chapter, in English, which will also be available in Japanese.  In addition to the classroom presentation, I am also developing the in class hands-on exercises and labs as well as the take-away assignments.

The classes will not be restricted to Japanese fluent individuals, but will be open to users, system administrators, developers, and anyone who is interested knowing more about or learning about OpenSolaris.  This is a free open event for anyone who wishes to attend, and even if you aren’t Japanese fluent, the classroom lecture will be done in English.  So I would encourage anyone who has an interest in learning more about OpenSolaris to come and participate.  It’s also a good way to get to know each other and build a community around OpenSolaris and help support the Tokyo Open Solaris Users Group.

The Requirements

Every student participating in the class will be provided an English copy of the OpenSolaris Bible, the classroom presentation in English and Japanese, and the raw unformatted text translation for review.  Each student is required to have the following items or abilities:

1. •Make the commitment to attend all classroom sessions
   

2. •Be able to read and write Japanese fluently (only of you are one of the translation project participants)
   

3. •Be able to read and comprehend spoken English
   

4. •Have a laptop computer capable of running VirtualBox in the following configuration:
   

5. •VirtualBox 3.1.2
   

6. •1 GB RAM for virtual OpenSolaris host
   

7. •2 sparse virtual disks of 10GB minimum for the OpenSolaris Installation
   

8. •5 additional sparse virtual disks of 10GB for ZFS exercises
   

9. •WiFi networking or other supported wireless networking capability for classroom exercises
   

This class will assume you have basic computer skills, but will not assume advanced knowledge of OpenSolaris.  We’re going to start at the basics and work our way through.  You should also posses a willingness to learn and the desire to learn more about OpenSolaris and how it works and what it is capable of.

Are You Interested In Participating?

If you are interested in participating in this project, you can express your interest by using the Tokyo OpenSolaris User Group Mailing list.  You can do so by signing up and sending mail to the list on the UG-TSUG mailing list sign-up form.  We will also be using this list to make announcements regarding the classroom sessions as well as any questions or discussions regarding OpenSolaris as it pertains to this course and review process.

The classes are planned to start on the last Saturday of the month in either February or March.  We would like to get at least 15-20 participants.

There will be no charge for this class, it will be completely free.  All you need to do is show up.

This will take a substantial amount of time for all participants involved in producing the materials as well as the classroom participants and reviewers.  Please do not sign up if you do not think you can make the commitment.

Additional Resources

1. •OpenSolaris Community
   

2. •OpenSolaris Download Page (Initially the class will use 2009.06 or snv_111b)
   

3. •Tokyo OpenSolaris Community
   

4. •Tokyo OpenSolaris Community Mailing List Signup
   

5. •VirtualBox