Welcoming OpenIndiana

"Solaris holds a special place in my heart. It was my first taste of UNIX, back in my school days, and I probably wouldn't have become involved with the Linux community if I hadn't been searching for a free version of "this UNIX thing" so I could practise my shell scripting at home. I was thrilled when Sun announced they were releasing OpenSolaris for the community to play with, even if it was several years too late to help me with my homework. And I was very disappointed when Oracle executed OpenSolaris earlier this year. Fortunately for Solaris fans the OpenIndiana project is picking up where Sun left off. I had been itching to try a new version of OpenSolaris since February (when the last release was scheduled) and so I quickly grabbed the newly launched OpenIndiana, development build 147.

"Installation and hardware support

"Before diving into the contents of the DVD, first let me say that the project's web site is very much a work in progress. Many pages haven't been posted yet and the site is mostly an introduction to the project and a download page. No doubt these will be filled in later, but for now the web site is mostly bare. What we can learn in those few pages is that OpenIndiana is working with the Illumos project to make a binary compatible fork of OpenSolaris. Or what used to be OpenSolaris. Maintaining binary compatibility will allow people to freely test their systems and software with OpenIndiana prior to trying an official Solaris product."

Complete Story

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• Ellison & the GPL Part II(Sep 24, 2010)
• A Quick Look at OpenIndiana(Sep 17, 2010)
• Does the Fate of OpenSolaris Tell Us Where Unix Is Headed?(Sep 03, 2010)
• Oracle Squelches Open Source Spirit(Sep 02, 2010)
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