OpenSolaris

OpenSolaris is the project on development of the version of the Solaris operating system with open source texts performed from 2005 to 2010. An exit of the first assembly of OpenSolaris took place on June 14, 2005. At the time of purchase of SUN Microsystems company by Oracle company the last opened source texts of a kernel of OS, network components, system libraries and basic programs for architecture of SPARC and x86. These components can be taken as a basis for creation of distribution kits by third-party firms that at the moment and it is made both with participation of SUN Microsystems, and without it. Over time disclosure of source texts and other parts of Solaris was planned. In August, 2010 after project closure by Oracle company the former participants of community OpenSolaris announced creation of the Illumos project which purpose is development of the version of the Solaris operating system with completely open code. Initially founders of Illumos were not going to separate completely from the main development of Solaris (i.e., to create so-called "форк" the project) and even invited Oracle to cooperation, however it became clear later that Illumos will be developed completely irrespective of Oracle.

Concept of the project

Development process of OpenSolaris was conducted on a voluntary and unpaid basis by community of OpenSolaris developers, however went and coordinated with participation of specialists of Sun. At the same time the accurate protocol of the organization of development — so-called OpenSolaris Community Process was set.

It was planned that development of new versions of Solaris will go mainly in the OpenSolaris project by efforts of community of developer enthusiasts. The parts of the code developed by volunteers, new utilities and different improvements and improvements in process of their testing, a running in and check for reliability and compliance to the corporate quality standards admitted to Sun would have to be added to the corporate commercial version of Sun Solaris. At the same time Sun company did not promise a full compliance of OpenSolaris of the commercial version of Solaris. Sun reserved the right not to add in the commercial version of Solaris some new features, functions and utilities which can be present at OpenSolaris. And on the contrary, in the commercial version of Sun was going to deliver the additional proprietary software which would not be present at OpenSolaris and which was not going to be opened at all.

It was supposed that OpenSolaris will differ from the commercial version of Solaris also in lack of any official documentation from Oracle and formal technical support from specialists of Sun. Informal technical support and documentation will be available from developers — participants of OpenSolaris Community.

Sun, aiming to increase popularity of Solaris, to a project startup of OpenSolaris began to offer its binary version, free for downloading, for non-commercial use differing from commercial only in lack of formal technical support, printing documentation and additional proprietary software (Value Added Software).

History

2008

In May, 2008 the OpenSolaris project entered a new phase: there was essentially new OpenSolaris distribution kit. According to the plan of releases of a new distribution kit, each six months there had to be a new release of OpenSolaris. The May release received the name OpenSolaris 2008.05, and following, November 2008 — OpenSolaris 2008.11 and so on. The first release of OpenSolaris 2008.05 was based on a core of Nevada Build 79, and was a project deliverable code-named of Indiana. The distribution kit and documentation to it are freely available on the opensolaris.com website to all users of OpenSolaris.

2010

After Oracle purchased Sun company, representatives of community OpenSolaris could not achieve from the company as - or a certain answer about the future of the project. On August 13, 2010 this issue at last was resolved – however, it occurred in the form of leak of the internal document of Oracle, but not the official statement from the representative of the company.

According to the published document, Oracle will support development of Solaris OS which is positioned as the most perfect technically from operating systems of family UNIX (the closest competitors are HP/UX and AIX). At the same time, Oracle refuses open model of development: "We will not publish source texts for all components of the Solaris operating system in real time in process of development process promotion, any more by means of automatic ezhenochny assemblies", the document says.

Those components which extend on the terms of CDDL will continue to be published on the terms of this license, however the publication of source texts of new versions of the Solaris components will be performed only after an official release of the corporate version. The time gap can be very essential: so, now Oracle is going to release the version of Solaris 11 Express for developers until the end of 2010, and the corporate version – only in 2011.

In ten days prior to leak the former participants of community OpenSolaris announced creation of the Illumos project which purpose is development of the version of the Solaris operating system with completely open code. Initially founders of Illumos were not going to separate completely from the main development of Solaris (i.e., to create so-called "форк" the project) and even invited Oracle to cooperation, however now is clear that Illumos will be developed completely irrespective of Oracle.

Platforms

OpenSolaris and the majority of distribution kits are intended for work on computers with architecture of x86/x86-64. Starting with version 2009.06, OpenSolaris officially supports SPARC processors. Installation on them it is possible only using Automated Installation (on network) though there is unofficial LiveCD. The marTux distribution kit is specially intended for SPARC.

Distribution kits

After opening of the source code Solaris, on its basis distribution kits from independent developers began to be created. SchilliX which is released in three days after opening of the code became very first.

Distribution kits are created for different user groups, however a problem of most of developers is creation of the lightweight, simple operating systems in use working at normal equipment. Also is special distribution kits, for example, the marTux distribution kit is intended for the systems SPARC, Polaris for PowerPC, and NexentaStor is used in storage systems.

At present OpenSolaris (an official distribution kit), BeleniX and Nexenta OS enjoy the greatest popularity.

From features of the new OpenSolaris system it is possible to select:

• It is delivered in the form of LiveCD with a possibility of installation on a disk;
• The interface is translated into several languages including into Russian;
• The environment of a desktop is GNOME of version 2.24 with the composite manager of Compiz;
• As the file system ZFS is by default used;
• The management system for packets of IPS (Image Packaging System) reminding APT. Work with packets is performed via the pkg utility or the graphic manager of packets. For example, for updating of all packets set in a system, including a core, it is enough to execute the "pkg image-update" command.

For updating of packets and a core of IPS uses repositories. The central repository of packets for OpenSolaris is located at pkg.opensolaris.org.

In Russian the additional information on OpenSolaris is available on the website developers.sun.ru and in a forum to the address developers.sun.ru/forum.

Software

The majority of programs with the open code can be compiled in OpenSolaris. Binary packets are located at in a repository of OpenSolaris of pkg.opensolaris.org which contains more than 24 thousand packets. Distribution kits on the basis of OpenSolaris use own repositories. Useful sources of the software for Solaris/OpenSolaris are the websites of the Blastwave and OpenCSW projects and also sunfreeware.com.

In OpenSolaris x86 an opportunity to start applications of Linux without performance penalty due to use of branded zones is implemented.

Licensing

Sun opened the most part of the source code Solaris according to the license Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) which is based on the license Mozilla Public License 1.1. Some parts of Solaris remain closed and extend in the form of binary modules according to the license OpenSolaris Binary License.

Links

• Illumos project website
• Russian user group of OpenSolaris