OpenSolaris is one of the OS's I've been using from time to time. 2008.5 is now released, what is new?

Quote:This release includes the GNOME 2.20  desktop environment, the Firefox web browser and Thunderbird email reader, with a host of other applications and utilities for you to enjoy.

New to OpenSolaris 2008.05 is IPS, a network package management system, allowing you to easily download and install additional software through the network. The addition of a graphical user interface will make updating your system a breeze when updates become available. The introduction of ZFS as the default file system allows you to get the advantages of ZFS right out of the box. ZFS will snapshot your file system, allowing you to roll-back should an upgrade fail.

By making various GNU utilities such as bash(1) the default option, the OpenSolaris user experience should be much more familiar to those who have used a GNU/Linux environment. This release also introduces root as a role using role-based access control, RBAC.

Popular applications such as OpenOffice.org, Sun Studio Express and Netbeans are available from the network repositories for you to enjoy. Compiz is also available for the first time, an OpenGL based 3D graphical window manager. Have a browse and see what you can find!

Along with these new features, comes all the exciting technologies you'd expect to see in OpenSolaris - DTrace, a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework; CIFS support, the Common Internet File System (also known as SMB); Clearview, a project improving network management; and xVM system virtualization to name but a few.

I installed the new release, and everything is running great. I'm not using opensolaris's pkg system though. I find pkgsrc from NetBSD much better. For more info and downloads goto:

http://www.opensolaris.com/

Here are some of my screenshots:

Hmm, I thought Solaris was Sun's OS - I guess OpenSolaris is something different?

EDIT: a 5 second glance - apparently is Sun - did they release their OS as open source now?
(sorry for the ignorance)

(This post was last modified: 05/05/2008 07:01 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Hmm, I thought Solaris was Sun's OS - I guess OpenSolaris is something different?

EDIT: a 5 second glance - apparently is Sun - did they release their OS as open source now?
(sorry for the ignorance)

The OpenSolaris project is an open source project sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Inc, that is initially based on a subset of the source code for the Solaris Operating System. It is a nexus for a community development effort where developers from Sun and elsewhere can collaborate on developing and improving operating system technology. The OpenSolaris source code will find a variety of uses, including being the basis for future versions of the Solaris OS product, other operating system projects, and third-party products and distributions.

Initially, the OpenSolaris project will provide the core kernel, libraries and commands that are currently distributed with the Solaris OS. Over time, it is expected that additional parts of the Solaris OS will be made available through the project.

The main difference between the OpenSolaris project and the Solaris Operating System is that the OpenSolaris project does not provide an end-user product or complete distribution. Instead it is an open source code base, build tools necessary for developing with the code, and an infrastructure for communicating and sharing related information. Support for the code will be provided by the community; Sun offers no formal support for the OpenSolaris product in either source or binary form.

The Solaris OS is Sun's operating system distribution and is branded, tested, maintained and supported as a Sun product. Future releases of the Solaris OS will be built from the OpenSolaris source code, but will still be supported in the same manner as current versions of the Solaris OS. At any given time, there may be some software in either the OpenSolaris project or the Solaris OS product that is not present in the other. However, over time the intent is to release as much of the existing source code as possible through the OpenSolaris project and for future development of the source to take place in the OpenSolaris community.

Oh okay, cool thanks :)

So I presume you like it?

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote:Oh okay, cool thanks :)

So I presume you like it?

Yes, I do very much.

Look at it this way. Mac OS X, is a good mix of Linux and Windows. OS X runs commercial software and is Unix based, so you can install a lot of Linux applications. *Solaris is the mixture of OS X, and *nix. More Unix base, will run most if not all Linux applications, but it's very easy to setup for the most part. Download, burn, install, and you have a very good base OS that uses ZFS, can be configured better than OS X, supports (out of the box) more hardware. If it doesn't you can do it yourself, or send a hardware report to OpenSolaris via the installed hardware tool, but the best part, because it's backed by Sun INC, it's the most stable Unix distro I've ever run, even more stable then any Linux distros I have run.

feinicks Wrote:this looks very Linux like.... how is the application support on this?

How is it on Red Hat, Debian, SuSE, NetBSD, FreeBSD, or Darwin x86? ;)

With BrandZ framework, you can install and run any of them, with some tweaking you can get any other distro's packages to run, and if not you always can compile what might not fall under this.

looks like ubuntu. What's the difference?

Incadude Wrote:looks like ubuntu. What's the difference?

That is because I'm using Gnome. The difference is Ubuntu is Linux, and OpenSolaris is Unix.

feinicks Wrote:I'll try this in VM.. where can I get it? torrents?

http://dlc.sun.com/osol/opensolaris/2008...200805.iso