OpenSolaris – Sun’s project to offer an open source Solaris – was a great success. OpenSolaris was useful to sysadmins and developers, because with access to the same source code that Solaris used, they could quickly debug issues with production systems, and work around buggy behavior.
After Oracle bought out Sun, contribution to OpenSolaris dried up. Previously helpful and concerned developers from Sun where blocked by Oracle policy from being open and sharing info with the community. Promised OpenSolaris distributions failed to be delivered, in spite of assurances from Oracle that there were on their way.
The OpenSolaris Governing Board were left with zilch to rule – no project to steer, no reactive vendor to work with. With nowhere left to turn, they resigned, and OpenSolaris as a distribution ended. OpenSolaris the project continued, with code being released and updates making their ways into the assorted source code repositories.
The final blow from Oracle came from a leaked internal memo, which laid out Oracle’s future plans for the project. A return to commercial-only distributions was planned, with source code only being released a bit after each update to Solaris. OpenSolaris as a project was dead – and this impacted a big number of people who had built up business round the powerful and feature-rich OpenSolaris code base.
These events spurred the inception of two new projects from the community. First, Illumos – an entirely open implementation of the OS / Net consolidation – the kernel and core of Solaris. Secondly, OpenIndiana – a full distribution, built from the updated OpenSolaris code base. Although OpenIndiana initially uses the last release ON consolidation from Oracle, the plan is to swiftly move to the Illumos ON and have an entirely open distribution.
OpenIndiana provides a continual upgrade from the OpenSolaris 2009.06 distribution. All of the powerful OpenSolaris technologies are there, working in the same way they did before – but with just about a year’s worth of updates, bug fixes, and enhancements. Enhancements to ZFS, Zones, dtrace, configuration, management – all have been built and rolled into the first OpenIndiana release.
Additionally, as OpenIndiana continues the goals of OpenSolaris – to introduce new features but remain binary compatible with the commercial Solaris operating system – existing Solaris applications that work with Solaris 10 will run with OpenIndiana.
The OpenIndiana project has been exceedingly successful in bringing a feature rich, dynamic, and usable successor to OpenSolaris. In doing hence the OpenIndiana team continues to provide a strong, open source UNIX environment for developers, start ups, and sysadmins everywhere.
@senantiasa I just realized that I put free OSes and apps backed by corporations in a bad light. One of the good things about corporations who honestly support the free software community is that they argue less while developing (IMO, like Debian for example) and they fill in the areas that completely-community driven FOSS cannot do alone (like GNU/Linux certifications, advertising, funding, etc).
@senantiasa
That may one that you’ve cited why he’s lazy, but I read from time to time he speaks more than the work he does–without Stallman, Linus is a nobody. The group who’d use GNU/Linux as their primary OS is more likely to be curious about its history enough to use it–myself including. Otherwise, what you’re doing is misinforming the people who will in turn misinform more people. Just use the name where the credit is due and let them find out for themselves.
@vseae15o But it only makes sense that way. For exmple, if a conversation is very short and they ask me what I do and I say “GNU/Linux”. Some people might not want to look stupid by asking “WHAT’S THAT??” and so they just never understood what I do or they might think that it’s some variant of “Linux”. All I want them to know is that I work with the system that their brains call “Linux”. I’m don’t think I’m misinforming them, I just use the a misinformed vocabulary to inform them about what I do
@vseae15o Listen, I understand the importance of calling it “GNU/Linux” (beyond a five-minute conversation). I remember when I first google the word “Linux”, I went to their site and just saw kernel developments and patches, etc. If on the other hand, I had searched for “GNU” instead, then I would’ve been introduced to the ‘free software’ cause earlier. A different topic: I read in a blog once that Stallman said it’s ok to use non-free software if there’s no free equivalent.” Is that true?
@senantiasa
No it doesn’t make sense because you’re obscuring what makes a kernel an OS. It doesn’t take me 5 minutes to tell you linux is the kernel from linus and GNU is a set of tools/commands that makes up the userland.
So quit making excuses to try to justify yourself. It’s lame enough as it already is.
@vseae15o What you’re saying is impractical really. There are times when I have to introduce myself to other people. I can’t introduce myself with phrases such as “the kernel is actually the software that directly interacts with all your hardwares, on the other hand, the userland is…” or “There is a huge debate on what to call these systems. But the story began when….”. However you look at it, you cannot bring up the subject without lecturing on technicalities… They’ll think “weirdo….”
@AdagioMS According to Eric Raymond, the layman is usually confused between hackers and crackers (LOL!). I love that word (crackers) because it has two meanings…
@senantiasa
“impractical” as defined by you only. Everyone has a name. Do you ask them what their name means every time? Who cares what people think? They can look it up or just tell them it’s just called that way. Just call it GNU/Linux. Big deal.
@vseae15o “Everyone has a name. Do you ask them what their name means every time?” You see, I’m talking about cases where there is no ‘every time’. “Who cares what people think?” I do! “They can look it up” Yes they can, but they wouldn’t. Do you go home and look up everything you heard, even if it sounds uninteresting? “just tell them it’s just called that way” What’s called that way? “Just call it GNU/Linux.” I DO call it GNU/Linux.
@vseae15o “Do you ask them what their name means every time?” But I’m talking about cases where there is no ‘every time’. “Who cares what people think?” I do! Are you the type of person who just talks about your interest regardless whether others are interested or not? “They can look it up” They can, but they won’t. Do you look up every term you hear? “just tell them it’s just called that way” WHAT’S CALLED THAT WAY? LINUX IS CALLED GNU/LINUX??
@senantiasa
“Are you the type of person who just talks about your interest regardless whether others are interested or not?” Which is exactly what you’re doing…
@senantiasa
“Are you the type of person who just talks about your interest regardless whether others are interested or not?”
Which is exactly what you’re doing…
I’ll use any os that allows me to use more cli (which real men should use) and less bloated, graphical shit like windows, which my nub, little sister loves so much.
PC-BSD could be a very good Linux replacement IMO. It’s not for COMPLETE beginners though, just people who know enough about computers to use Ubuntu or Mint.
linux, man. leeeeeeee-nuks.
I hate UNIX’s idea of having to use a Terminal for commands. I use Linux currently Mepis ver 11 but all Linux’s are the same under the hood. I also love windows 7, But the best free OS I really like is PC-BSD’s latest called Isotope. I think any windows desktop user can use it easily. PC-BSD is Free-BSD that’s geared to the desktop user. You never have to use a terminal for normal use. It will run all popular Linux apps out of the box as well as Wine and Games in wine.