OpenSolaris

For other uses, see Solaris.

OpenSolaris

OpenSolaris 2008.11
Company / developer	Sun Microsystems, subsidiary of Oracle Corporation
Programmed in	C
OS family	Unix, System V Release 4
Working state	Discontinued[1][2]
Source model	Free and open source software
Initial release	May 5, 2008 (2008-05-05)
Latest stable release	2009.06 / June 1, 2009; 2 years ago (2009-06-01)
Latest unstable release	snv_134 (build 134) x86/SPARC / March 8, 2010; 20 months ago (2010-03-08)
Available language(s)	Multilingual (more than 53)[3]
Update method	Image Packaging System
Package manager	Package Manager, pkg
Supported platforms	SPARC, IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC (under development), System z on z/VM (under development), ARM (under development)
Kernel type	Monolithic
Userland	GNU and traditional Solaris
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Mostly CDDL with proprietary components[4] and other licenses
Official website	OpenSolaris.com (Oracle) OpenSolaris.org (OpenSolaris community)

OpenSolaris ( /ˈoʊpən sɵˈlɑrɨs/) was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software. After the acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Oracle decided to discontinue open development of the core software, and replaced the OpenSolaris distribution model with the proprietary Solaris Express.

Prior to Oracle's moving of core development 'behind closed doors', a group of former OpenSolaris developers decided to "fork" the core software under the name OpenIndiana. The project, a part of the Illumos Foundation, aims to continue the development and distribution of the OpenSolaris codebase.^[5]

OpenSolaris is a descendant of the UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4) codebase developed by Sun and AT&T in the late 1980s. It is the only version of the System V variant of UNIX available as open source.^[6] OpenSolaris is developed as a combination of several software consolidations which were open sourced subsequent to Solaris 10. It includes a variety of free software, including popular desktop and server software.^[7][8] Sun has announced that future versions of its commercial Solaris operating system will be based on the OpenSolaris project.

On Friday, August 13, 2010, details started to emerge relating to the restructuring of the OpenSolaris project, the pending release of the new future commercial version of Solaris, Solaris 11, and how open source community interactions are being adjusted.^[9]

History

Further information: Solaris: History

OpenSolaris was based on Solaris, which was originally released by Sun in 1991. Solaris is a version of UNIX System V Release 4 (SVR4), jointly developed by Sun and AT&T to merge features from several existing Unix systems. It was licensed by Sun from Novell to replace SunOS.^[10]

Planning for OpenSolaris started in early 2004. A pilot program was formed in September 2004 with 18 non-Sun community members and ran for 9 months growing to 145 external participants.^[11] Sun submitted the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License) to the OSI, which approved it on January 14, 2005.

The first part of the Solaris code base to be open sourced was the Solaris Dynamic Tracing facility (commonly known as DTrace), a tool that aids in the analysis, debugging, and tuning of applications and systems. DTrace was released under the CDDL on January 25, 2005 on the newly launched opensolaris.org website.^[12] The bulk of the Solaris system code was released on June 14, 2005. There remains some system code that is not open sourced, and is available only as pre-compiled binary files.

To direct the newly-fledged project, a Community Advisory Board was announced on April 4, 2005: two were elected by the pilot community, two were employees appointed by Sun, and one was appointed from the broader free software community by Sun. The members were Roy Fielding, Al Hopper, Rich Teer, Casper Dik, and Simon Phipps. On February 10, 2006 Sun approved The OpenSolaris Charter, which reestablished this body as the independent OpenSolaris Governing Board.^[13] The task of creating a governance document or "constitution" for this organization was given to the OGB and three invited members: Stephen Hahn and Keith Wesolowski (developers in Sun's Solaris organization) and Ben Rockwood (a prominent OpenSolaris community member).

Initially, Sun's Solaris Express program provided a distribution based on the OpenSolaris code in combination with software found only in Solaris releases.^[14] The first independent distribution was released on June 17, 2005, and many others have emerged since.^[15]

On March 19, 2007, Sun announced that it had hired Ian Murdock, founder of Debian, to head Project Indiana,^[16] an effort to produce a complete OpenSolaris distribution, with GNOME and userland tools from GNU, plus a network-based package management system.^[17] The new distribution was planned to refresh the user experience, and would become the successor to Solaris Express as the basis for future releases of Solaris.

On May 5, 2008, OpenSolaris 2008.05 was released in a format that could be booted as a Live CD or installed directly. It uses the GNOME desktop environment as the primary user interface. The later OpenSolaris 2008.11 release included a GUI for ZFS' snapshotting capabilities, known as Time Slider, that provides functionality similar to Mac OS X's Time Machine.

In December 2008, Sun Microsystems and Toshiba America Information Systems announced plans to distribute Toshiba laptops pre-installed with OpenSolaris.^[18][19] On April 1, 2009, the Tecra M10 and Portégé R600 came preinstalled with OpenSolaris 2008.11 release and several supplemental software packages.^[20][21]

On June 1, 2009, OpenSolaris 2009.06 was released, with support for the SPARC platform.^[22]

On January 6, 2010, it was announced that Solaris Express program would be closed while an OpenSolaris binary release was scheduled to be released March 26 of 2010.^[23] The OpenSolaris 2010.03 release never appeared.

On August 13, 2010, Oracle was rumored to have discontinued the OpenSolaris binary distribution to focus on the Solaris Express binary distribution program. Source code would continue to be accepted from the community and Oracle source code would continue to be released into Open Source, but Oracle code releases would occur only after binary releases. Internal email was released by an OpenSolaris kernel developer but was unconfirmed by Oracle.^[24]

There was a post confirming the leak posted to the OpenSolaris Forums on August 13, 2010. Upstream contributions will continue through a new Oracle web site, downstream source code publishing will continue, binary distribution will continue under the old Solaris Express model, but release of source code will occur after binary cuts, and binary cuts will become less frequent.^[25]

On September 14, 2010, OpenIndiana was formally launched at the JISC Centre in London. While OpenIndiana is a fork in the technical sense, it is a continuation of OpenSolaris in spirit: the project intends to deliver a System V family operating system which is binary-compatible with the Oracle products Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express. However, rather than being based around the OS/Net consolidation like OpenSolaris was, OpenIndiana will become a distribution built up around Illumos kernel (the first release is still based around OS/Net). The project does use the same IPS package management system as OpenSolaris.^[26]

On November 12, 2010, a final build of OpenSolaris (134b) was published by Oracle to the /release repository to serve as an upgrade path to Solaris 11 Express.

Oracle Solaris 11 Express 2010.11, a preview of Solaris 11 and the first release of the post-OpenSolaris distribution from Oracle, was released on November 15, 2010.^[27]

Version history

Version Build Release date End of support phase[28] General Availability (GA) Post End of Version (EOV) SunSpectrum End of Service Life (SS-EOSL) 2008.05 86 2008-05-13 !13 May 2008 2008-11-13 !13 November 2008 2011-05-13 !13 May 2011 - 2008.11 101b 2008-11-25 !25 November 2008 2009-05-25 !25 May 2009 2011-11-25 !25 November 2011 - 2009.06 111b 2009-06-01 !1 June 2009 2009-12-01 !1 December 2009 2012-06-01 !1 June 2012 2014-06-01 !1 June 2014

Colour Meaning Red Release no longer supported Green Release still supported

^[29]

Release model

OpenSolaris 2009.06 x86 LiveCD GNOME with terminal.

OpenSolaris is offered as both development (unstable) and production (stable) releases.

• Development releases are built from the latest OpenSolaris codebase (consolidations) and include newer technologies, security updates and bug fixes, and more applications, but may not have undergone extensive testing.
• Production releases are branched from a snapshot of the development codebase (following a code freeze) and undergo a QA process that includes backporting security updates and bug fixes.

OpenSolaris can be installed from CD-ROM, USB drives, or over a network with the Automated Installer.^[30] CD, USB, and network install images are made available for both types of releases.^[31]

Repositories

OpenSolaris uses a network-aware package management system called the Image Packaging System (also known as pkg(5)) to add, remove, and manage installed software and to update to newer releases.

Packages for development releases of OpenSolaris are published by Oracle typically every two weeks to the /dev repository.^[32][33] Production releases use the /release repository^[34] which does not receive updates until the next production release. Only Sun customers with paid support contracts have access to updates for production releases.^[35]

Paid support for production releases which allows access to security updates and bug fixes is offered by Sun through the /support repository on pkg.sun.com.

Documentation

A hardware compatibility list (HCL) for OpenSolaris can be consulted when choosing hardware for OpenSolaris deployment.^[36]

Extensive OpenSolaris administration, usage, and development documentation is available online,^[37] including community-contributed information.^[38]

License

Main article: Common Development and Distribution License

Sun has released most of the Solaris source code under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), which is based on the Mozilla Public License (MPL) version 1.1. The CDDL was approved as an open source license by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in January 2005. Files licensed under the CDDL can be combined with files licensed under other licenses, whether open source or proprietary.^[39]

During Sun's announcement of Java's release under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Jonathan Schwartz and Rich Green both hinted at the possibility of releasing Solaris under the GPL, with Green saying he was "certainly not" averse to relicensing under the GPL.^[40] When Schwartz pressed him (jokingly), Green said Sun would "take a very close look at it." In January 2007, eWeek reported that anonymous sources at Sun had told them OpenSolaris would be dual-licensed under CDDL and GPLv3.^[41] Green responded in his blog the next day that the article was incorrect, saying that although Sun is giving "very serious consideration" to such a dual-licensing arrangement, it would be subject to agreement by the rest of the OpenSolaris community.^[42]

Conferences

The first annual OpenSolaris Developer Conference (abbreviated as OSDevCon) was organized by the German Unix User Group (GUUG) and took place from February 27 to March 2, 2007 at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.^[43] The 2008 OSDevCon was a joint effort of the GUUG and the Czech OpenSolaris User Group (CZOSUG) and look place June 25–27, 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic.^[44] The 2009 OSDevCon look place October 27–30, 2009, in Dresden, Germany.^[45]

In 2007, Sun Microsystems organized the first OpenSolaris Developer Summit, which was held on the weekend of October 13, 2007, at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the United States.^[46] The 2008 OpenSolaris Developer Summit returned to UCSC on May 2–3, 2008, and took place immediately prior to the launch of Sun's new OpenSolaris distribution on May 5, 2008, at the CommunityOne conference in San Francisco, California.^[47]

The first OpenSolaris Storage Summit was organized by Sun and held September 21, 2008, preceding the SNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC), in Santa Clara, California.^[48] The second OpenSolaris Storage Summit preceded the USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST) on February 23, 2009, in San Francisco, United States.^[49]

On November 3, 2009, a Solaris/OpenSolaris Security Summit was held by Sun in the Inner Harbor area of Baltimore, Maryland, preceding LISA '09.^[50]

Ports

• PowerPC Port:^[51] Project Polaris, experimental PowerPC port,^[52] based on the previous porting effort, Project Pulsar^[53] from Sun Labs.
• OpenSolaris for System z,^[54] for IBM mainframes: Project Sirius, developed by Sine Nomine Associates, named as an analogy to Polaris.
• OpenSolaris on ARM Port^[55]
• OpenSolaris on MIPS Port^[56]

Derivatives

• Illumos, a full-opensource fork of the project, started in 2010 by a community of Sun OpenSolaris engineers and the NexentaOS support - Note that OpenSolaris was not 100% opensource, some drivers and some libraries were property of other companies that Sun (now Oracle) licensed and was not able to release.
• OpenIndiana, a project under the Illumos umbrella aiming "... to become the defacto OpenSolaris distribution installed on production servers where security and bug fixes are required free of charge."^[26]
• Belenix, Live CD^[57]
• EON ZFS Storage,^[58] a NAS implementation targeted at embedded systems
• Jaris OS, Live DVD and also installable.^[59] Pronounced according to the IPA but in English as Yah-Rees. This distribution has been heavily modified to fully support a version of Wine called Madoris that can install and run Windows programs at native speed. Jaris stands for "Japanese Solaris". Madoris is a combination of the Japanese word for Windows "mado" and Solaris
• marTux, Live CD/DVD,^[60] first distribution for SPARC
• MilaX, small Live CD/Live USB^[61]
• napp-it,^[62] free Browser managed internet/ san/ nas/ project, based on nexenta3 or eon/opensolaris
• Nexenta OS, Ubuntu userland with solaris derived kernel ^[63]
• NexentaStor, optimized for storage workloads, based on Nexenta
• SchilliX, Live CD
• StormOS, a lightweight desktop OS based on Nexenta and Xfce.

See also

Free software portal

• Comparison of open source operating systems
• Image Packaging System
• OpenSolaris JeOS
• Illumos
• OpenIndiana

Notes

• Foxwell, Harry; Tran, Christine (April 22, 2009). Pro OpenSolaris (First ed.). Apress. pp. 280. ISBN 1430218916. http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430218916. 
• Solter, Nicholas A.; Jelinek, Jerry; Miner, David (February 12, 2009). OpenSolaris Bible (First ed.). Wiley. pp. 1008. ISBN 0470385480. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470385480.html. 

References

1. ^ http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/opensolaris-discuss/2010-August/059310.html
2. ^ http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/opensolaris-discuss/2010-August/059316.html
3. ^ Petr Hruška (April 6, 2010). "Language/Locale Coverage". OpenSolaris 2010.03 Test Plan. opensolaris.org. http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+int_localization/OpenSolaris201003TestPlan. Retrieved 2010-04-20. 
4. ^ "OpenSolaris Binary Licensing FAQ". opensolaris.org. http://opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/binary_licensing_faq/. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
5. ^ "Welcome to Project OpenIndiana!". Project OpenIndiana. 10 September 2010. http://openindiana.org/. Retrieved 28 September 2010. 
6. ^ The BSD variant of UNIX, on which versions of Solaris prior to Solaris 2 (= SunOS 5) were based, has been open-source since June 1994.
7. ^ Jim Grisanzio (December 12, 2009). "OpenSolaris Consolidation Information". opensolaris.org. http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Main/conslist. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
8. ^ Jim Grisanzio (March 26, 2010). "What version of the Solaris Operating System is OpenSolaris?". opensolaris.org. http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Main/general_faq#HWhatversionoftheSolarisOperatingSystemisOpenSolaris. Retrieved 2010-04-22. 
9. ^ "OpenSolaris is now officially dead. RIP.". http://blogs.everycity.co.uk/alasdair/2010/08/opensolaris-is-now-officially-dead-rip/. Retrieved 2010-08-13. 
10. ^ "SunSoft introduces first shrink-wrapped distributed computing solution: Solaris" (Press release). Sun Microsystems. September 4, 1991. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/25years/pr.html#solaris. Retrieved 2007-08-07. 
11. ^ Jörg Schilling (March 24, 2010). "More ksh93 builtins". opensolaris.org. http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/ogb-discuss/2010-March/007627.html. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
12. ^ Michael Singer (January 25, 2005). "Sun Cracks Open Solaris". InternetNews.com. http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3463621. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
13. ^ Simon Phipps (February 10, 2006). "OpenSolaris Independence Day". Sun Microsystems. http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/webmink?entry=opensolaris_independence_day. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
14. ^ Dan Price (June 21, 2006). "What's New in Solaris Express 6/05 (Nevada Build 15)". Sun Microsystems. http://blogs.sun.com/dp/entry/what_s_new_in_solaris6. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
15. ^ "Schillix's Homepage: Main / Announce". Jörg Schilling. April 22, 2008. http://schillix.berlios.de/pmwiki.php/Main/Announce. Retrieved 2010-04-08. 
16. ^ Simon Phipps (March 19, 20067). "Charting the Next 25 Years". Sun Microsystems. http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/charting_the_next_25_years. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
17. ^ Timothy Prickett Morgan (August 2, 2007). "Q&A: Sun's Top Operating System Brass Talk OS Strategy". IT Jungle. http://www.itjungle.com/tug/tug080207-story01.html. 
18. ^ Tom Espiner (December 12, 2008). "OpenSolaris now on Toshiba laptops". ZDNet Australia. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/OpenSolaris-now-on-Toshiba-laptops-/0,130061733,339293785,00.htm. 
19. ^ "Sun Microsystems Launches Latest Version of OpenSolaris; Unveils Time Slider Visualization Tool and New Partnership with Toshiba to Build Line of OpenSolaris Laptops" (Press release). Sun Microsystems. December 10, 2008. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-12/sunflash.20081210.1.xml. Retrieved 2008-12-21. 
20. ^ "Toshiba OpenSolaris Laptops". Sun Microsystems. http://www.opensolaris.com/toshibanotebook/. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
21. ^ "Get the Toshiba OpenSolaris Laptop". ShopOpenSolaris.com. http://www.shopopensolaris.com/suntoshiba/home.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
22. ^ "What's New In 2009.06". Sun Microsystems. June 2006. http://www.opensolaris.com/learn/features/whats-new/200906/. Retrieved 2009-11-21. 
23. ^ Derek Cicero (January 6, 2010). "Update on SXCE". opensolaris.org. http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=121181. 
24. ^ Steven Stallion (August 13, 2010). "Update on SXCE". Iconoclastic Tendencies. http://sstallion.blogspot.com/2010/08/opensolaris-is-dead.html. 
25. ^ Alasdair Lumsden (August 13, 2010). "Update on SXCE". OpenSolaris.org. http://opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=496203&tstart=0. 
26. ^ ^{a b} Frequently Asked Questions From the OpenIndiana Wiki
27. ^ Glynn Foster (November 15, 2010). "[osol-announce Oracle Solaris 11 Express 2010.11 Releases Today!"]. opensolaris.org. http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/opensolaris-announce/2010-November/001512.html. Retrieved 2010-11-15. 
28. ^ "End of Service Life Status for OpenSolaris Operating System". Sun Microsystems. http://www.sun.com/service/eosl/eosl_opensolaris.html. Retrieved 2009-09-28. 
29. ^ "Service Life Status for OpenSolaris Operating System Releases". Oracle. http://www.sun.com/service/eosl/eosl_opensolaris.html. Retrieved 2010-06-20. 
30. ^ OpenSolaris 2010.03 Automated Installer Guide
31. ^ OpenSolaris distributions and development releases
32. ^ OpenSolaris Development Release Packaging Repository
33. ^ title=Additional IPS Repositories
34. ^ OpenSolaris Packaging Repository
35. ^ title=Service Life Status for OpenSolaris Operating System Releases
36. ^ OpenSolaris Hardware Compatibility List (HCL)
37. ^ OpenSolaris documentation page
38. ^ OpenSolaris information resources home wiki
39. ^ "Can code licensed under the CDDL be combined with code licensed under other open source licenses?". OpenSolaris FAQ: Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). OpenSolaris. http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/licensing_faq/#CDDL-combo. 
40. ^ "Sun Opens Java" (OGG Theora). Sun Microsystems. http://mediacast.sun.com/share/tmarble/Sun_Opens_Java.ogg. 
41. ^ Galli, Peter (January 16, 2007). "Sun to License OpenSolaris Under GPLv3". eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2084284,00.asp. 
42. ^ Rich Green (January 17, 2007). "All the News That's Fit to Print". Rich Green's Weblog. http://blogs.sun.com/richgreen/entry/all_the_news_that_s. Retrieved 2007-01-25. 
43. ^ German Unix User Group (February 22, 2007). "OpenSolaris Developer Conference 2007". German Unix User Group. http://www.guug.de/veranstaltungen/osdevcon2007/. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
44. ^ German Unix User Group and the Czech OpenSolaris User Group. "OpenSolaris Developer Conference 2008". http://www.osdevcon.org/2008/. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
45. ^ German Unix User Group. "OpenSolaris Developer Conference 2009". http://www.osdevcon.org/2009/. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
46. ^ Linda Bernal, Eric Boutilier, Bonnie Corwin, Jim Grisanzio, Jesse Silver (October 26, 2009). "OpenSolaris Newsletter: October 2007". opensolaris.org. http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Community+Group+advocacy/2007. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
47. ^ "OpenSolaris Summit". genunix. August 31, 2009. http://wiki.genunix.org/wiki/index.php/OpenSolaris_Summit. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
48. ^ "OpenSolaris Storage Summit 2008". Sun Microsystems. March 25, 2010. http://wikis.sun.com/display/OpenSolaris/OpenSolaris+Storage+Summit+2008. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
49. ^ "OpenSolaris Storage Summit 200902". Sun Microsystems. November 15, 2009. http://wikis.sun.com/display/OpenSolaris/OpenSolaris+Storage+Summit+2008. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
50. ^ "Security Summit November 2009 - Make System Security Work for You". Sun Microsystems. December 21, 2009. http://wikis.sun.com/display/secsummit09/Security+Summit+November+2009+-+Make+System+Security+Work+for+You. Retrieved 2010-04-12. 
51. ^ http://opensolaris.org/os/community/power_pc/
52. ^ http://www.blastwave.org/articles/BLS-0055/index.html
53. ^ http://research.sun.com/spotlight/2006/2006-06-14-SolarisPPC.html
54. ^ http://opensolaris.org/os/project/systemz/
55. ^ http://opensolaris.org/os/project/osarm/
56. ^ http://opensolaris.org/os/project/mips/
57. ^ http://www.belenix.org/
58. ^ http://sites.google.com/site/eonstorage/
59. ^ http://jaris.jp/index2.html
60. ^ http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~mbeinsx/marTux/
61. ^ http://www.milax.org/
62. ^ http://www.napp-it.org/
63. ^ http://www.nexenta.org/os/DownloadMirrors

External links

• OpenSolaris.com — Official Web site, hosted by Oracle Corporation
• OpenSolaris.org — OpenSolaris Community Web site
• OpenSolaris Newsletter
• OpenSolaris at DistroWatch
• #opensolaris IRC channel on Freenode
• OpenSolaris.. And Beyond at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video) by Ian Murdock
• Ian Murdock's presentation
• OpenSolaris: an ultimate development platform? at Google Videos (Adobe Flash video) by Roman Shaposhnik