OpenSolaris: Be Brilliant Faster

Shortly after the release of the Solaris 10 OS in January 2005, Sun opened the source code of the Solaris Operating System (OS) to create more opportunities for partnerships and technical innovation. This month, Sun and the global OpenSolaris community struck another blow for innovation when they announced the free, open source binary distribution of the OpenSolaris OS.

Created through community collaboration, the new OpenSolaris OS delivers a leading-edge, easy-to-use, and familiar development and deployment environment, while providing world-class support and access to award-winning technologies. The new OpenSolaris OS can be downloaded for free at sun.com/solaris or at the newly launched opensolaris.com.

Sun launched the OpenSolaris operating system at the CommunityOne conference in San Francisco on May 5. Thousands of developers and community members from Eclipse, Apache Software Foundation, Grails, Ruby, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, ODF Alliance, OpenOffice.org and many others attended this year's free, one-day event. (View the Web event here.)

"From a software perspective, it's clear that open source is the right approach and that OpenSolaris provides the platform to participate, innovate and ultimately succeed," said Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president of software. "Sun is tremendously proud of the work the OpenSolaris community has put forth. We believe the new OpenSolaris OS sets the innovation benchmark for what's possible in an open source world."

OpenSolaris features LiveCD installation, making it easier for users to evaluate the operating system risk-free, because they don't need to wipe out their systems to install it. A new network-based package repository, the OpenSolaris Image Packaging System (IPS), increases installation speed and accuracy by providing better control of applications and dependencies and offers easy-to-use system management. This allows developers to dynamically construct purpose-built operating systems to create the basis for specialized software and hardware appliances.

Why Is OpenSolaris the Best Choice for You?

The OpenSolaris community is encouraging broader participation as it works to drive OpenSolaris innovation and work towards future distributions of the OS. At CommunityOne, the group unveiled its new logo and launched a new Web site — opensolaris.com — at which users can download the OpenSolaris OS release. The Web site also provides a forum to share ideas and collaborate with the OpenSolaris community.

OpenSolaris is aimed at developers, system administrators, students, and users who want to develop and improve operating systems. The OpenSolaris community numbers more than 100,000 members. The OpenSolaris User Group community is an active and growing collaboration with dozens of OpenSolaris technology communities and projects being created on OpenSolaris.org.

Develop Freely, Deploy Quickly

Built to give developers a risk-free platform to quickly build, test, troubleshoot and deploy their innovations, OpenSolaris is a full-featured OS with compelling software features such as the 128-bit ZFS file system, Dynamic Tracing (DTrace), and Predictive Self Healing. For example, ZFS instant roll-back and continual check-summing capabilities allow developers to test ideas risk-free, since their work is protected. Built-in virtualization features such as Solaris Containers make it easier to develop and test applications in their own separate sandboxes.

"OpenSolaris is a massive advancement for OS development and deployment," said Stephen Lau, OpenSolaris Governing Board member. "It combines the strong foundation of Solaris technologies and tools with modern desktop features and applications developed by open source communities such as GNOME, Mozilla, and the FSF."

OpenSolaris is built around a distribution model aimed at allowing users to customize their open source OS deployments to meet their distinct needs. OpenSolaris is massively scalable, running virtually any system, from one CPU to hundreds of virtual cores. It supports nearly 1000 systems from leading vendors such as Sun, HP, IBM, and Dell, including systems that students, developers, and IT staff are most likely to be using.

OpenSolaris provides a highly reliable foundation for deployments of applications based on Web 2.0 stack technologies, including Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Ruby. In addition, OpenSolaris provides access to more than 2000 open source packages, delivering a rapidly updatable environment that can be configured to match what the user is most familiar with, such as GNU development tools and Web 2.0 stack technologies.

For Students, an Opportunity to Grow Skills

OpenSolaris offers particular benefits for students. By joining the OpenSolaris community, students can work side-by-side with Solaris engineers and leading members of the community, gaining invaluable real-world insights and contacts. They can interact directly with developers of the Solaris OS kernel and related technologies, such as DTrace, ZFS, and Predictive Self Healing.

As a result, students can build programming, analysis, and system management skills for the real world that translate to more opportunities when they graduate. Said Stephen Lau, "OpenSolaris provides an ideal environment for students, developers, and early adopters looking to learn and experiment with innovative technologies."

Missed the CommunityOne Web event on May 5? Watch it here.