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 OpenSolaris desktop using the GNOME desktop environment |
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| OS family | Unix-like |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | 2008-05-05 |
| Latest stable release | 2009.06 / 2009-06-01 |
| Supported platforms | SPARC, IA-32, x86-64, PowerPC (under development), System z on z/VM (under development), ARM (under development) |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| Default user interface | GNOME |
| License | Mostly CDDL with proprietary components [1] |
| Website | www.opensolaris.com |
OpenSolaris is an open source operating system based on Sun Microsystems' Solaris. It is also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around it.
OpenSolaris is derived from the Unix System V Release 4 codebase, with significant modifications made by Sun since it bought the rights to that code in 1994. It is the only open source System V derivative available.[2] Open sourced components are snapshots of the latest Solaris release under development.[3] Sun has announced that future versions of its commercial Solaris operating system will be based on technology from the OpenSolaris project.[4]
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History
OpenSolaris is based on Solaris, which was originally released by Sun in 1991. Solaris is a version of SVR4 (System V Release 4) UNIX, co-developed by Sun and AT&T. It was licensed by Sun from Novell to replace SunOS.[5]
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.
The first part of the Solaris codebase to be open sourced was the Solaris Dynamic Tracing facility (commonly known as DTrace), a tracing tool for administrators and developers that aids in tuning a system for optimum performance and utilization. DTrace was released on January 25, 2005. At that time, Sun also launched the opensolaris.org web site, and announced that the OpenSolaris code base would be released under the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution License). 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.
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 Hoppe, Rich Teer, Casper Dik, and Simon Phipps. On February 10, 2006 Sun reestablished this body as the independent OpenSolaris Governing Board.[6] 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).
On March 19, 2007, Sun announced that it had hired Ian Murdock, founder of Debian, to head Project Indiana,[7] an effort to produce a complete OpenSolaris distribution, with GNOME and userland tools from GNU, plus a network-based package management system.[8] Several independent distributions are also available.
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 release includes 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.[9][10]
On April 1, 2009, the Tecra M10 and Portégé R600 come preinstalled with OpenSolaris 2008.11 release and several supplemental software packages.[11][12]
On June 1, 2009, OpenSolaris 2009.06 was released, with support for the SPARC platform.[13]
Version history
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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.[15]
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.[16] 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.[17] 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.[18]
Legal status
Judge Dale Kimball made a ruling on July 16, 2008 in the legal case SCO v. Novell which included these statements:
| “ | After entering into the 2003 Sun Agreement, Sun released an opensource version of its UNIX-based Solaris product, called "OpenSolaris." As its name suggests, OpenSolaris is based on Sun's Solaris operating system, which is in turn based on Novell's SVRX intellectual property. Absent the removal of the 1994 Sun Agreement's confidentiality restrictions, Sun would not have been licensed to publicly release the OpenSolaris source code
...In this case, Sun obtained the rights to opensource Solaris, and SCO received the revenue for granting such rights even though such rights remained with Novell. If the court were to declare that the contract was void and should be set aside, the court could not return the parties to the same position they were in prior to the 2003 Agreement. Sun has already received the benefits of the agreement and developed and marketed a product based on those benefits. There was also evidence at trial that OpenSolaris directly competed with Novell’s interest. The court, therefore, cannot merely void the contract.[19] |
” |
Conferences
Recently efforts were made to organize the first OpenSolaris conference. It's aimed at programmers or people interested in development issues and it took place February 2007 in Berlin, Germany. The OpenSolaris Developer Conference [1] is organized by the German Unix User Group (GUUG).
Ports
- PowerPC Port [2]: Project Polaris, experimental PowerPC port [3], based on the previous porting effort, Project Pulsar [4] from Sun Labs.
- OpenSolaris for System z [5], for IBM mainframes: Project Sirius, developed by Sine Nomine Associates, named as an analogy to Polaris.
- OpenSolaris on ARM Port [6]
- OpenSolaris on MIPS Port [7]
Derivatives
- Belenix, Live CD [8]
- marTux, Live CD/DVD [9], first distribution for SPARC
- Nexenta OS, Ubuntu-based with ZFS [10]
- NexentaStor, optimized for storage workloads, based on Nexenta
- SchilliX, Live CD
- MilaX, small Live CD/Live USB [11]
- AuroraUX, Live CD with userland rewritten in Ada; support for x86/x64 and an experimental PowerPC port.
- Jaris, Live DVD and also installable. 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".
- StormOS, a lightweight desktop OS based on Nexenta.
- OSUNIX
- napp-it, [12], free Browser managed internet/ san/ nas/ project, based on nexenta3 or eon/opensolaris
Live USB
It is possible to create a Live USB of OpenSolaris [20].
See also
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
- ^ "OpenSolaris Binary Licensing FAQ". OpenSolaris.org. http://opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/binary_licensing_faq/. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ^ Bruce Hill (2007), Introduction to OpenSolaris, OpenSolaris.org, p. 3, http://opensolaris.org/os/project/sdosug/files/OpenSolarisIntro.pdf, retrieved 2009-11-21
- ^ "What version of the Solaris OS has been open sourced?". OpenSolaris General FAQ. OpenSolaris.org. http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/general_faq/#release.
- ^ "What is the difference between the OpenSolaris project and the Solaris Operating System?". OpenSolaris General FAQ. OpenSolaris.org. http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/faq/general_faq/#opensolaris-solaris.
- ^ Sun Microsystems (September 4, 1991). "SunSoft introduces first shrink-wrapped distributed computing solution: Solaris". Press release. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/25years/pr.html#solaris. Retrieved 2007-08-07.
- ^ Simon Phipps (February 10, 2006). "Open Solaris Independence Day". Sun Microsystems. http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/webmink?entry=opensolaris_independence_day. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Sun Microsystems (December 10, 2008). "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. http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2008-12/sunflash.20081210.1.xml. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ "Toshiba OpenSolaris Laptops". OpenSolaris.com. http://www.opensolaris.com/toshibanotebook/. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ^ "Get the Toshiba OpenSolaris Laptop". ShopOpenSolaris.com. http://www.shopopensolaris.com/suntoshiba/home.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ^ "What's New In 2009.06". OpenSolaris.com. June 2006. http://www.opensolaris.com/learn/features/whats-new/200906/. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
- ^ "End of Service Life Status for OpenSolaris Operating System". Sun Microsystems. http://www.sun.com/service/eosl/eosl_opensolaris.html. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Sun Opens Java" (OGG Theora). Sun Microsystems. http://mediacast.sun.com/share/tmarble/Sun_Opens_Java.ogg.
- ^ Galli, Peter (January 16, 2007). "Sun to License OpenSolaris Under GPLv3". eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2084284,00.asp.
- ^ 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.
- ^ http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/Novellruling.pdf
- ^ OpenSolaris Developer Preview on USB flash drives
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: OpenSolaris |
- The OpenSolaris developer community website
- OpenSolaris Ignite Newsletter - A monthly newsletter by, for, and about the OpenSolaris community.
- OpenSolaris at DistroWatch
- #opensolaris on freenode
- OpenSolaris.. And Beyond at Google Video (Adobe Flash video) by Ian Murdock
- OpenSolaris: an ultimate development platform? at Google Video (Adobe Flash video) by Roman Shaposhnik
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