Linux or Solaris?
If the software you want to run runs on Solaris, it’ll work for you. If not, it won’t. You’ll probably have to try it to know. Some things will compile, some won’t. I don’t think Solaris uses linux’s libc, so any GNU extensions to that will be a big factor. Another big issue is sound. Solaris doesn’t support ALSA (obviously), and while OSS supports Solaris, I remember it being sub-par.
I used Solaris x86 about five or six years ago for a couple of years on a PC as a server, and even back then hardware support was pretty decent if you didn’t have any unusual hardware. If you have hardware that isn’t supported, you could consider using vmware to run a virtual solaris x86 instance. That’ll give you a chance to play around with solaris, but use an OS more suitable for desktop use as your primary OS (vmware runs on linux or windows). From a sysadmin standpoint, I’ve always liked Solaris more, but everyone has their own favorite flavor. Happy hacking!
3) emulation/ABI stuff: I have only limited experience with these kinds of tools (I reckon this falls into the WINE/Wabi camp), but my general impression is that these kinds of things are a bit bogus. Several years ago, I ran the Linux port of Mozilla (or Navigator, can’t remember) as my primary browser on FreeBSD using the Linux ABI. It actually ran faster than it did on a comparable Linux workstation. ABI translation isn’t emulation, and you don’t end up with the performance penalties that you get with emulation. It’s actually pretty handy.
