> So if by asking me to "turn in" you are asking me to forsake my own engineering values for purposes of your comfort, well, no, I'm afraid that isn't going to happen.
Of course I'm not suggesting that you forsake your values. I'm sure anyone who has followed you for any amount of time knows that will never happen. There is no stronger advocate for the principles upon which your work is based, and your fervor and commitment is extremely admirable.
My suggestion is merely that it's perhaps time to acknowledge that the market is not going to adopt illumos in a major way. An outflow of that is considering the possibility that the considerable engineering resources at your command may be better deployed in attempting to instill and carry forth the same crucial, badly-needed principles and values into projects that have more realistic prospects, to the extent possible, rather than remaining 1000% committed to a lost cause, where the principles and values will flare out in obscurity. "If a tree falls in the forest..."
illumos is an immense contribution to our collective engineering heritage and I entertain no illusion that it should be totally iced. Personally I would consider it a glorious resurgence to see it more widely adopted, and to see it become the basis of a new generation of systems. SmartOS is simply a joy compared to the train wreck that passes for systems management in today's mainstream, and I sincerely hope that the wheels turn to make it a more viable option. The ongoing open-source contributions of the faithful volunteer keepers of the flame will be invaluable in leaving that possibility open.
While there is no doubt that illumos's open-source heritage ensures it will live on, we must be realistic and admit that for all practical intents and purposes, the sun has set on the project's general commercial viability (at least for the time being -- the thing about sunsets is, they're followed by sunrises).
The question I pose is whether your advocacy may be more effective in bringing the values and contributions of yourself and your team in force to more active venues, than by continuing to toil in the last fleeting fragments of the twilight of Solaris's commercial viability.
I personally know many young engineers who admire your talks but have no exposure to the actual process of working with you directly. What would change if they got that? Would there be a Cantrill Youth? What's the likelihood of passing on that flame within illumos v. expanding your horizons to other groups?