OpenSolaris

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OpenSolaris News

Here are some news articles about OpenSolaris. If you see an interesting article that we missed, please send details to news-discuss, and we'll discuss it there. This news page is maintained by the Advocacy Community Group by Terri Molini and Joe G.

Solaris 2008.05 | BinaryArcade | 05/28/2008

Solaris 2008.05 Yep, there was a big hype about solaris 2008.05. One review even mention it as being ‘What Ubuntu hopes to be someday’. Sorry folks, I’m going to have to disagree. I booted the OS onto my laptop today, and spent the majority of my morning dealing with its various short-comings. The OS has finally evolved into a LiveCD, years after all of it’s Linux competitors have done the same. I was greeted when i first booted up by a console-login and no graphical interface, hopefully just a compatibility issue with the on-board graphics on my laptop, though the GUI worked just fine after logging in with a blank username/password. (I feel like I should be automatically logged in with a LiveCD, maybe I’m just too picky)

DTrace Overhead using SPARC | Java Ranch | 05/28/2008

There's an interesting tidbit on the Solaris Internals wiki regarding Dtrace overhead. Under the section "Dynamic Probes," mdb is used to show dissembled code before and after a probe is enabled on a function. Their example uses an AMD64 system; this entry repeats and extends the exercise using a SPARC system. Re: Dtrace Overhead using SPARC Nice post. Note, however, that the list of modules that mdb lists is the modules for mdb itself that provide dcmds and walkers. Those are based on the objects loaded in the target (in this case the kernel), but it is by no means a full list of resident kernel modules. Comment from Adam Leventhal on May 29, 2008 5:42:54 PM PDT

OpenSolaris: nice try, pity about the licence | IT Wire, Sam Varghese | 05/27/2008

Why would anyone try to introduce an operating system into the existing glut unless it pays off in spades? What can a new entrant give us that the multitude of Linux distributions, the Mac OSX and old, hoary Windows hasn't? Sun Microsystems apparently thinks it has a lot to offer - else the so-called Project Indiana would not have been set up to churn out "a binary distribution of an operating system built out of the OpenSolaris source code."

OpenSolaris: NOT what Ubuntu hopes to be | hackferret | 05/25/2008

OpenSolaris: NOT what Ubuntu hopes to be. Well, naturally - I have already begun testing OpenSolaris 2008/05. In fact, I began today, attempting to install it on my (Currently) Ubuntu Hardy Heron Rack server (Compaq Proliant DL360.) GNOME on Opensolaris seems better themed, and more stable than on Linux - however the tree from which Solaris-Gnome is forked is a little older so that's to be expected. It is also slightly less featured, as a Desktop Environment - but fine for general use. I also noted that the livecd performance was spectacular compared to Ubuntu - which typically hugs the floor like treacle. It's Device Driver Utility made it easy to view device support in the system, and on an installed machine - download drivers for that hardware. Therein lies my problem with OpenSolaris 2008/05. AFTER you install. Not helpful for me, when my two only storage controllers (Compaq SmartArray integrated SCSI RAID, and an Emulex LP8000 PCI Fibre Channel SCSI adapter) both lack support on the CD. This leaves me with a technical challenge.

OpenSolaris 2008.05 | Mandalika's scratchpad | 05/24/2008

Sun Microsystems' own OpenSolaris distribution, OpenSolaris 2008.05, has been available for download for almost 3 weeks on the new web site www.opensolaris.com . Finally I had some time to test the Live CD on my Toshiba Tecra M2 notebook computer. I have been monitoring this effort (project Indiana as Sun calls it) from the beginning - so, I'm not surprised to see the Ubuntu like graphical interface. I spent very little time checking what is working and what is not. I'm quite impressed with the Network Auto-Magic (NWAM). It worked out of the box. NWAM detected the available Wi-Fi networks; and configured the wireless network interface in the first shot. However I could not figure out how to bring up the NWAM GUI, just in case if I need to connect to a different Wi-Fi network. The workaround seems to remove the file /etc/nwam/known_wifi_nets, restart the NWAM daemon (svcadm restart nwam) and to restart the GDM session (simply logout) to see the NWAM GUI window popped with the list of available networks. If that's the case, it needs to be fixed.

OpenSolaris 2008.5 Isn't So Bad | BlogFranz | 05/24/2008

OpenSolaris has come along way from that nasty red and blue console based installer I remember using back in the 90s. A nice GNOME based LiveCD. 32/64 bit. GRUB & GNOME. Tolerable package management although there must be some other repos somewhere. Imagine, having to have to built pcap and tcpdump from scratch in 2008, the horror. But it worked!

Open Solaris | thoughts of a knowledge geek | 05/23/2008

Open Solaris ... For reasons I've never really understood, I like playing with operating systems. So when OpenSolaris was released I couldn't resist. I'd previously played with Nexenta and Belinix but neither had been that satisfactory.

Making Solaris Packages from Commercial Software | Mike Renfro’s Blog | 05/21/2008

Creating a managed infrastructure can go pretty slowly when you’re beset with a combination of bare competence and a work schedule that’s overrun with non-infrastructural tasks. So yes, it’s been just under a year since I wrote up how to make Debian packages from commercial software. On to getting similar capabilities out of the Solaris systems.

OpenSolaris: Shows Promise, Needs Work | OS News, Thom Holwerda (Also: NewMobileComputing) | 05/15/2008

Last week, on my country's Liberation Day, Sun released OpenSolaris 2008.05, the much awaited first official fruit of Project Indiana. It delivers many of OpenSolaris' major features, such as DTrace, ZFS, containers, and more, in a Linux distribution-like package. The goal is to allow more people to experience Solaris. A few reviews have since hit the web.

What’s wrong at OpenSolaris | ZDNet, Paul Murphy | 05/15/2008

So, bottom line, what? Simple: I think making OpenSolaris seem more Linux like has been a mistake for Sun - a better strategy would have been to focus OpenSolaris development on SPARC and PPC/Cell, support a source compatible x86 version, and commit real resources to bringing Solaris capabilities like dTrace and ZFS to the Linux community. Basically, I see making Solaris more Linux-like as dragging Solaris down market when the same effort could have made a far more positive contribution by helping drag Linux up.

OpenSolaris, VirtualBox, CommunityOne and So Much More -- Analyze This | Sun Analyst Relations blog | 05/13/2008

From the day late and dollar short files, comes this post about all that was CommunityOne. In case you missed the news, Sun announced the first commercial release of OpenSolaris. The feedback has been stupendous. In addition to making Solaris a truly modern and easy to get operating system there are a host of great new features. Like what? Glad you asked.

JavaOne 2008: Sun Challenges Linux | Sys-Con, Maureen O'Gara | 05/13/2008

Sun’s mule train has finally pulled into Indiana after three years on the road. Indiana is the Linux-friendly Fedora-like OpenSolaris project meant to move the Solaris-shy Linux community off Linux and on to Solaris tempted by Solaris widgetry like the highly scalable, rollback-easy, 128-bit ZFS default filesystem, Linux-like network-based Image Packaging System (IPS) application install accelerator, DTrace predictive self-healing and scalable Containers virtualization, not to mention its Gnome 2.22 front-end and built-in Firefox browser.

First look: OpenSolaris 2008.05 a work in progress | Ars Technica, Ryan Paul | 05/12/2008

The OpenSolaris project, which has been slowly gaining momentum over the past year, issued its first official release last week. Designed with an emphasis on usability and easy installation, OpenSolaris aims to provide a complete desktop platform for users and developers built on top of Sun's Solaris kernel. We have been testing OpenSolaris 2008.05 in order to see how it compares to modern Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE.

OpenSolaris 2008/05 on VirtualBox | Markus Thielmann's Blog | 05/12/2008

In opposite to older releases, VirtualBox 1.6.0 seems to be quite stable and fast. Since it's now Sun's property, I thought it might be a good idea to test OpenSolaris Indiana as a guest system. Indiana is Sun's new "default" OpenSolaris Distribution. It's a full-fledged desktop operating system, including a Gnome-Desktop, a live-CD and a graphical installer. Booting from VirtualBox is really simple, OpenSolaris uses Grub as boot-manager. One drawback: OpenSolaris Grub detects a already installed windows system, but it doesn't add already installed Linux Distributions to the boot-manager.

OpenSolaris: What Ubuntu wants to be when it grows up | ZDNet, Jason Perlow | 05/12/2008

Founded as an Open Source project by Sun Microsystems in June of 2005, and originally created as a clearing house for releasing CDDL licensed Solaris code for others (such as Nexenta and Sine Nomine) to produce Solaris-compatible operating systems, OpenSolaris recently refocused its efforts in the last year and launched Project Indiana, Sun’s equivalent to Red Hat’s Fedora or Novell’s OpenSUSE — where leading and bleeding edge enhancements to Solaris 10 can be tested and proofed by the Open Source community at large. To give Indiana some legitimacy, Sun hired Debian GNU/Linux founder Ian Murdock to lead the project, in the hopes that his Linux roots and community ties would improve OpenSolaris adoption.

Sun and OpenSolaris Community Introduces Operating System | redOrbit | 05/12/2008

Sun Microsystems and the global OpenSolaris community have jointly introduced OpenSolaris operating system. OpenSolaris, based on Sun's Solaris kernel and created through community collaboration, delivers an unrivaled development and deployment environment offering the right mix of platform stability and support to meet business and development needs. The OpenSolaris operating system enables developers to quickly develop, test, trouble-shoot and deploy their new web services, HPC and network applications. LiveCD installation and the new network-based OpenSolaris image packaging system (IPS) simplify and speed installation and integration with third-party applications. OpenSolaris IPS increases installation speed and accuracy by providing better control of applications and dependencies and offers easy-to-use system management. Stephen Lau, governing board member of OpenSolaris, said: OpenSolaris is a massive advancement for OS development and deployment. 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 Free Software Foundation."

Considering OpenSolaris 2008.05 | Devcraft | 05/12/2008

Personally I never expected OpenSolaris to work, considering the immense momentum GNU/Linux was gathered. However with Ian Murdock(Debian’s creator) in charge and Sun’s financial backing Project Indiana was bound to deliver us some impovements… With the advent of IPS(Image Packaging System), the polishing done on the desktop side and the inclusion of some very helpful software packages(like the radeonhd driver for example) in the main distribution OpenSolaris has become a serious contender for a workstation OS. Especially for Java developers… There are many reviews of the new OS on the net, most of which are favourable. All of this got me considering to try OpenSolaris 2008.05 on one of my computers at home and see for myself if it is a viable alternative to GNU/Linux. If you are considering like to me to take OpenSolaris 2008.05 for a spin you may find this short article, containing a few tips for common post installation tasks, helpful.

Grab your Free Open Solaris CD Today | Technospot | 05/12/2008

Solaris CD download or get it by post . From Sun INC

Sun-Intel introduce Solaris threading development technology | ComputerWeekly.com | 05/12/2008

The Sun-Intel alliance has introduced Intel Threading Building Blocks (TBB) for the Solaris operating system using Sun Studio. TBB makes it easier to develop threaded applications for newer multi-core processors, including Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors. TBB is available through an open source project and has become the most widely used tool for software developers using C++ to take advantage of the power of multi-core processors, said the partners. "Now, Sun Studio with TBB makes it possible to quickly harness the full processing power of Solaris platforms," they said.

Blogging on OpenSolaris -- Not Your Cup of Chai... | Not Your Cup of Chai... | 05/11/2008

OpenSolaris Review: Setting Up My previous post was a quick summary on what I had done the past few days on OpenSolaris. I think OpenSolaris deserves more than that and hence I will try to run a series of reviews and my experience with tinkering OpenSolaris.