• Solaris and OpenSolaris System Release Model
• Solaris Operating System Life Cycle
• Solaris Operating System End of Service Life Status
• OpenSolaris Operating System Life Cycle
• OpenSolaris Operating System End of Service Life Status

Solaris OS milestone releases come out approximately every 3 to 5 years, and are supported for a minimum of 10 years, as described. The most current milestone version is updated several times a year, providing access to fixes, new hardware support, and/or additional new features from the upcoming milestone version.

OpenSolaris OS updates come out approximately every 6 months, and are supported as described. OpenSolaris updates are based on the latest work in the codebase being developed by the OpenSolaris community. Future releases of the Solaris OS will also be based on the OpenSolaris community codebase.

Sun's Life Cycle Model for the Solaris Operating System

The Solaris Operating System life cycle, from when a milestone product version (e.g. Solaris 10) becomes widely available to when Sun stops broad support of that version, is at least ten years. Updates that incorporate a set of tested, integrated patches along with new Solaris features and support for new hardware are made available several times during the course of a release.

Figure 1: Solaris Operating System Life Cycle

As shown above in Figure 1, the Solaris life cycle is defined by seven major events:

E1.	General Availability (GA): This represents when a new version, e.g. Solaris 10, becomes available in the market.
E2.	End of Life (EOL) Pre-Notification: When Sun can provide the first notification to customers that it will be announcing the EOL of a milestone version. At this time, the date of the final EOL announcement is set to be one year later1.
E3.	End of Life (EOL) Announcement: When Sun announces that it will stop active development of a milestone version. The period from GA to the EOL announcement is at least four years and six months, and could be longer. EOL announcement triggers the start of a 90 day Last Order period.
E4.	Last Order Date (LOD): Marks the end of a 90 day period after the EOL announcement during which customers can place their final orders for the product. Note: customers can continue to purchase and renew regular support contracts until End of Service Life (E7).
E5.	Last Ship Date (LSD): Marks the 90 day period after LOD for Sun to ship the EOL product to customers. LSD marks the formal start of the five year Retirement Phase of that product.
E5 to E6.	Phase 1: Phase 1 support will provide contract customers with full remedial support, accepting requests for enhancements and cosmetic bugs. Solaris SW updates, formerly known as patches, will be created as needed, and SunAlerts and recommended Patch Clusters will be maintained through the end of Phase 1. You will continue to receive the same level of support that you received before the product End-Of-Lifed.
E6 to E7.	Phase 2: Contract customers will continue to receive online and telephone support and have access to pre-existing Solaris SW updates (patches). Pre-existing means Solaris SW updates created prior to start of Phase 2. Sun may offer the option to purchase a Solaris Vintage Patch Service during Phase 2.

Key life cycle event dates for Solaris versions are available here.

Sun provides contractual support on the OpenSolaris OS for up to five years from the product's first General Availability (GA) date as described. OpenSolaris Package Updates are released approximately every 6 months. OpenSolaris Subscriptions entitle customers during the term of the Customer's Subscription contract to receive support on their current version of OpenSolaris, as well as receive individual Package Updates and OpenSolaris Support Repository Package Updates when made commercially available by Sun. Sun may require a Customer to download and install Package Updates or OpenSolaris OS Updates that have been released since Customer's previous installation of OpenSolaris, particularly when fixes have already been made available in later releases.

Additional Information

• Solaris 8 Transition Information
• Solaris 9 Transition Pre-notification
• Read more details on Solaris Retirement Support