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OpenSolaris Code Released
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Tue Jun 14, 2005 11:20 AM
from the today-is-the-day dept.
from the today-is-the-day dept.
njcoder writes "C|net's news.com.com has reported that Sun Microsystems is releasing parts of the OpenSolaris code today licensed under the OSI-approved CDDL . The release consistes of over 5 million lines of code for the base system OS/Net (kernel and networking). OpenSolaris is based on Solaris 10, the current version of Sun's Unix Operating System. Back in January, Sun released the code for DTrace, a dynamic tracing tool for analyzing and debugging kernel and userland events. DTrace is one of the big features in Solaris 10. Some other highlights include the GRUB bootloader, SMF (Service Management Facility) which replaces init.d scripts, it starts up processes in parallel for faster boots (7 second boot on a dual opteron workstation I think that was the setup) as well as providing features for automatically restarting. OpenSolaris provides support for x86/x86-64 processors as well as Sparc. The Blastware guys are working on Polaris which is an OpenSolaris port to PowerPC. Sun has been working on opening Solaris for over a year now. The OpenSolaris project started with a pilot group of Sun and non-Sun users. During the pilot program a lot of info including screenshots could be found on various OpenSolaris member blogs. (My favorite is Ben Rockwood's blog). Teamware is the source code management system Sun uses for Solaris and OpenSolaris. Which was designed by Larry McVoy (now of BitKeeper) while he was at sun. No word yet on if Teamware will be available for OpenSolaris developers or not. Sun also uses CollabNet for it's Open Source project websites so that might be a possibility as well."
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Rock on! (Score:5, Interesting)
Combined with an Open Source/Forkable license, what more could a Solaris Geek want? Get out the party hats people, because this has got to be THE most awesome thing Sun has ever done!
(I'm excited, can you tell? *Happy Dance* *Happy Dance*)
Now for the bad news. Sun has taken the tack of encouraging users to build their own system. That is a good thing. Unfortuntely, all builds require a system to bootstrap the build. At the moment, the only option is Solaris Community Edition [sun.com], a non-Torrented download. (Boo!) That being said, I don't think we'll have to wait too long for the OSS community to fix that little issue.
Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Informative)
Sun Compiler License (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Informative)
Sadly, that might not necessarily be the case - OpenDarwin has been around for five years and you still need a Darwin system [including some non-free tools] to bootstrap the build. But as Solaris Express is free as in non-costworthy, I don't
Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Rock on! (Score:5, Funny)
Now for the bad news. Sun has taken the tack of encouraging users to build their own system.
Countdown to Debian GNU/Solaris in T minus 10... 9...
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Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Funny)
Joerg Schilling [linux.com], is that you?
Re:Rock on! (Score:3, Insightful)
Does Solaris want to be the hacker's desktop OS? I really doubt it. Does Solaris want to be an OSS player in the data center? Absolutely. And for data center features, Solaris does very well against the competitors. If you think Sun's OSS strategy is to get joe hacker to run his OS, of course you're going to be disappointed, because
let the driver flood gates open! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:let the driver flood gates open! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:let the driver flood gates open! (Score:4, Informative)
Be patient. They're working on it. Or would you rather they open source some code they don't have the right to, and get people who see that code into trouble?
There is still alot of work to be done, but it is a huge first step.
For more, take a look at the roadmap at
http://opensolaris.org/os/about/roadmap/ [opensolaris.org]
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Zfs? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Zfs? (Score:5, Informative)
Justing reading the stuff that is released, however, is a joy.
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Re:Zfs? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm unfamiliar (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:4, Funny)
what are the main advantages it has over Linux, BSD and Windows?
Well Solaris is +3 vs. undead, while Linux, BSD and Windows are: +1 icy blast, +2 flaming and -4 cursed respectively.
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Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:3, Interesting)
mdb is the biggest pain in the world; gdb isn't perfect, but it's a lot
Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:5, Interesting)
In Solaris 10, I did some work [sun.com] to make the content of core files adjustable and added text (aka code) to the default. Now when you get a core file, you can debug it on any other system regardless of the patch level, libraries installed or the version of your application that was running. Using coreadm(1M) you can adjust the content to, say, add the symbol table to the core dump or omit the gigantic ISM segment that you don't care about for.
So, yes, mdb(1) had some limitations in the past -- we've tried to address them in Solaris 10. If you have other issues preventing you from using mdb(1), post a comment on the OpenSolaris [opensolaris.org] site.
I thought I was going to have to find a shill to ask that question... "Sir, we've never met before, have we?"
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Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'm unfamiliar (Score:4, Informative)
DTrace lets us examine just about anything, with minimal impact on the system. It's way cool, and other OSes have nothing that is close (for details covering the Linux Trace Toolkit (LTT), DProbes, K42 and Kerninst see the USENIX paper [sun.com].
DTrace solves disk I/O by PID, network activity by PID, elapsed and on-cpu times for syscalls, libcalls and user funcs, and much more.
DTrace is great if you are a programmer with a little kernel knowledge, but if not you may find the DTraceToolkit [brendangregg.com] helpful - it is a collection of ready-to-roll scripts.
For a list of many OpenSolaris features with screenshots, see the OpenSolaris Guide [opensolaris.org].
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Solaris can't compete (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Solaris can't compete (Score:3, Funny)
so.. (Score:4, Funny)
windows automaticay restarts for me all the time. I get a quick flash of blue and then bam! restart.
Persona non-grata. (Score:3, Funny)
Remember folks. You hate Larry.
For those of us who don't like torrents (Score:3, Informative)
openoffice... (Score:3, Insightful)
Great. (Score:4, Funny)
SMF vs InitNG? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apps Here! Get Your Apps Here! (Score:4, Informative)
Additionally, SunFreeware http://www.sunfreeware.com/ [sunfreeware.com] is another great site for getting applications.
Can either an "Editor" or the Poster please RTFA (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't have to think, just RTFA, where you can see that it was a single AMD64 setup.
Still, I guess that would be too much trouble for the simple gain of being correct ?
Is the monopoly finally being smashed? (Score:3, Insightful)
Larry McVoy did NOT design Teamware (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Vaporware no more! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Vaporware no more! (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Vaporware no more! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Vaporware no more! (Score:3, Funny)
Flames like "the G stands for General" followed by colorful aspersions on your intelligence?
The real question is does it run on Xen? (Score:3, Interesting)
Q: does it run on Xen? A: Not yet but it will (Score:5, Informative)
See http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/tpm/20050510#the
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Re:Parallel boot scripts (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't know about the rest.
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Re:Parallel boot scripts (Score:3, Funny)
I don't know.
--- If you found this answer helpful, click HERE.
--- If not click HERE.
Re:Parallel boot scripts (Score:4, Interesting)
The SMF has a concept of milestones, which groups of scripts "belong" to. This is not unlike the principle of run levels, and when moving between milestones the SMF can fire off a whole bunch of services in parallel. It usually does this through scripts akin to the old init scripts, but doesn't have to.
That's not a very good description, but it might give someone who can't be bothered to RTFM some idea of one of the big new features.
Solaris 10 is great. IMHO there's no Unix (or clone) to touch it. That's just my opinion, and I CAN NOT be bothered to argue about it, so don't start!
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It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:4, Insightful)
But this has potential to do what MS could not. Solaris is at least respected by the development world. This is simply another trap being laid by Sun and MS against Linux.
What is funny is how little ppl seem to remember from just 7 years ago. Sun actually ported to X86 once before AND "opened" their source code. Then when they thought that things were going well, they dropped it. If Sun ever feels like things are going in their favor, it is almost certain that they will do it again.
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Re:It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:3, Informative)
Try reading the CDDL FAQ [opensolaris.org] before you start trolling.
Re:It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
It may be. I know a very bright Microsoft zealot who thinks it is, and couldn't be more delighted at the prospect.
I don't think it is, myself. For one thing, the internal cultures of these two organizations, and the personalities they attract to senior positions, could not be more different. You just have to look at their past conduct to see this. Microsoft does lay traps, systematically, all the time. Sun is a corporate player too, thus in the game for profit, but its strategies are much more symbiotic in their essential character.
When Sun puts someone on a standards committee, it's to make the standard more valuable for everyone, on the express theory that it's better to share a growing market than have all of a stagnant one. When Microsoft puts someone on the same committee, it's to "embrace and extend" the standard so as to exclude competition, and the expressed goal is to eliminate all competition.
Another thing worth remembering is that an organization as big as Sun has substantial internal struggles from time to time. Such was the case with Solaris on X86. The project took off energetically at first, but it was a risky venture which happened to fall out of political favor just at the point when driver support was becoming most critical. The result was not a strategic withdrawl, it was a conspicuous fumble which cost Sun a lot of internal morale, hurt its reputation, and lost it a golden opportunity whose extent has only become more apparent in recent years.
So yes, it could all happen again, but not because of some nefarious strategy on the part of Sun Microsystems. Sun does not have a history of executing that way.
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Re:It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
As it is, McNeally's collaboration with MS makes me very edgy. Consider how much McNeally hates Gates and MS. It does not make sense for them to work together.
I have some friends who work for Sun and some others that work for MS (one who is on the linux tiger team - when he c
Re:It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It is MS and Sun vs. Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
I won't be the only one, but I just thought I'd point out that the license they are using this time around is quite different, and they literally cannot take away your right to use the code once you've got it. You might read the (OSI-approved) license before spouting off, although I know that is asking a lot.
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/licensing/ [opensolaris.org]
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Re:Finally! (Score:5, Interesting)
SMF is going to be a head check for a lot of people who LIKE init.d/rc.d (though backward compatability with that has been retained so far). Myself, I like the fact that it's more robust and faster, and I don't like the fact that it's managed with a handful of different commands depending on what you want to do. And I'm not terribly thrilled that the backend is XML, but you'll have that.
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