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 OpenSolaris build snv_134b | |
| Developer | Sun Microsystems |
|---|---|
| Written in | C |
| OS family | Unix (System V Release 4) |
| Working state | Discontinued, continued byillumos[1][2][3] |
| Source model | Open source |
| Initial release | May 5, 2008; 16 years ago (2008-05-05) |
| Latest release | 2009.06 / June 1, 2009; 15 years ago (2009-06-01) |
| Latest preview | snv_134 (build 134)x86/SPARC / March 8, 2010; 15 years ago (2010-03-08) |
| Available in | Multilingual (more than 53)[4] |
| Update method | Image Packaging System |
| Package manager | Package Manager,pkg |
| Platforms | SPARC,IA-32,x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic |
| Userland | SVR4 C library,GNU Core Utilities and traditionalSolaris commands |
| Default user interface | GNOME |
| License | MostlyCDDL with proprietary components[5] and other licenses |
| Official website | opensolaris |
OpenSolaris (/ˌoʊpənsəˈlɑːrɪs/[6]) is a discontinuedopen-source computeroperating system forSPARC andx86 based systems, created bySun Microsystems and based onSolaris. Its development began in the mid 2000s and ended in 2010.
OpenSolaris was developed as a combination of several softwareconsolidations that were open sourced starting with Solaris 10. It includes a variety offree software, including populardesktop andserver software.[7][8] It is a descendant of theUNIX System VRelease 4 (SVR4) code base developed by Sun andAT&T in the late 1980s and is the only version of the System V variant of UNIX available as open source.[9]
After Oracle'sacquisition of Sun Microsystems in 2010, Oracle discontinued development of OpenSolaris in house, pivoting to focus exclusively on the development of the proprietarySolaris Express (nowOracle Solaris).[10][11] Prior to Oracle'sclose-sourcing Solaris, a group of former OpenSolaris developers began efforts tofork the core software under the nameOpenIndiana, and theillumos Foundation that was created at the time continues to develop and maintain thekernel anduserland of OpenIndiana,[12] and since then additionalillumos distributions, both commercial and non-commercial, have appeared and are under active development.
OpenSolaris was based on Solaris, which was originally released by Sun in 1991. Solaris is a version ofUNIX System VRelease 4 (SVR4), jointly developed by Sun and AT&T to merge features from several existingUnix systems. It was licensed by Sun fromNovell to replaceSunOS.[13]
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.[14] Sun submitted theCDDL (Common Development and Distribution License) to theOSI, 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 asDTrace), 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 launchedopensolaris.org website.[15] The bulk of the Solaris system code was released on June 14, 2005. There remains some system code that is not open source and is available only as pre-compiledbinary 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 broaderfree software community by Sun. The members wereRoy Fielding, Al Hopper, Rich Teer, Casper Dik, andSimon Phipps. On February 10, 2006, Sun approvedThe OpenSolaris Charter, which reestablished this body as the independent OpenSolaris Governing Board.[16] 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). The former next-generation Solaris OS version under development by Sun to eventually succeed Solaris 10 wascodenamed 'Nevada', and was derived from what was the OpenSolaris codebase and this new code was then pulled into new OpenSolaris 'Nevada' snapshot builds. "While under Sun Microsystems' control, there were bi-weekly snapshots of Solaris Nevada (the codename for the next-generation Solaris OS to eventually succeed Solaris 10), and this new code was then pulled into new OpenSolaris preview snapshots available at Genunix.org. The stable releases of OpenSolaris are based on these Nevada builds."[17]
Initially, Sun'sSolaris Express program provided a distribution based on the OpenSolaris code in combination with software found only in Solaris releases.[18] The first independent distribution was released on June 17, 2005, and many others have emerged since.[19]
On March 19, 2007, Sun announced that it had hiredIan Murdock, founder ofDebian, to headProject Indiana,[20] an effort to produce a complete OpenSolaris distribution, withGNOME anduserland tools fromGNU, plus a network-basedpackage management system.[21] 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 aLive CD or installed directly. It uses the GNOME desktop environment as the primary user interface. The later OpenSolaris 2008.11 release included a GUI forZFS' snapshotting capabilities, known as Time Slider, that provides functionality similar tomacOS'sTime Machine.
In December 2008, Sun Microsystems andToshiba America Information Systems announced plans to distribute Toshiba laptops pre-installed with OpenSolaris.[22][23] On April 1, 2009, theTecra M10 andPortégé R600 came preinstalled with OpenSolaris 2008.11 release and several supplemental software packages.[24][25]
On June 1, 2009, OpenSolaris 2009.06 was released, with support for the SPARC platform.[26]
On January 6, 2010, it was announced that the Solaris Express program would be closed while an OpenSolaris binary release was scheduled to be released on March 26, 2010.[27] 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. The internal email was released by an OpenSolaris kernel developer but was unconfirmed by Oracle.[28]
There was a post confirming the leak posted to the OpenSolaris Forums on August 13, 2010. Upstream contributions will continue through a new Oracle website, downstream source code publishing will continue, and binary distribution will continue under the old Solaris Express model, the but release of source code will occur after binary cuts, and binary cuts will become less frequent.[29]
On September 14, 2010, OpenIndiana was formally launched at theJISC Centre inLondon. 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 that is binary-compatible with the Oracle products Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express. However, rather than being based around the OS/Net[clarification needed] consolidation like OpenSolaris was, OpenIndiana became a distribution based on illumos (the first release is still based around OS/Net). The project uses the same IPS package management system as OpenSolaris.[30]
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.[31]
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OpenSolaris was offered as bothdevelopment (unstable) andproduction (stable) releases.
OpenSolaris can be installed fromCD-ROM,USB drives, or over a network with the Automated Installer.[34] CD, USB, and network install images are made available for both types of releases.[35]
OpenSolaris uses a network-awarepackage management system called theImage 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 were published by Oracle typically every two weeks to the/dev repository.[36][37] Production releases use the/release repository[38] which does not receive updates until the next production release. Only Sun customers with paid support contracts have access to updates for production releases.[39]
Paid support for production releases which allows access to security updates and bug fixes was offered by Sun through the/support repository onpkg.sun.com.
Ahardware compatibility list (HCL) for OpenSolaris can be consulted when choosing hardware for OpenSolaris deployment.[40]
Extensive OpenSolaris administration, usage, and development documentation is available online,[41] including community-contributed information.[42]
Sun released most of the Solaris source code under theCommon Development and Distribution License (CDDL), which is based on theMozilla Public License (MPL) version 1.1. The CDDL was approved as an open source license by theOpen 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.[43]
During Sun's announcement of Java's release under theGNU General Public License (GPL),Jonathan Schwartz andRich 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.[44] 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.[45] 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.[46]
The first annual OpenSolaris Developer Conference (abbreviated as OSDevCon) was organized by theGerman Unix User Group (GUUG) and took place from February 27 to March 2, 2007, at theFreie Universität Berlin inGermany.[47] The 2008 OSDevCon was a joint effort of the GUUG and the Czech OpenSolaris User Group (CZOSUG) and look place June 25–27, 2008, inPrague, Czech Republic.[48] The 2009 OSDevCon look place October 27–30, 2009, inDresden, Germany.[49]
In 2007, Sun Microsystems organized the first OpenSolaris Developer Summit, which was held on the weekend of October 13, 2007, at theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz in theUnited States.[50] 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 theCommunityOne conference inSan Francisco, California.[51]
The first OpenSolaris Storage Summit was organized by Sun and held September 21, 2008, preceding theSNIA Storage Developer Conference (SDC), inSanta Clara, California.[52] The second OpenSolaris Storage Summit preceded theUSENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST) on February 23, 2009, in San Francisco, United States.[53]
On November 3, 2009, a Solaris/OpenSolaris Security Summit was held by Sun in theInner Harbor area ofBaltimore, Maryland, preceding theLarge Installation System Administration Conference (LISA).[54]
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