OpenIndiana
Encyclopedia
OpenIndiana is a Unix-like
computer operating system
released as free and open source software
. It forked
from OpenSolaris
after the discontinuation of that project by Oracle
and aims to continue development and distribution of the OpenSolaris codebase. The project operates under the umbrella of the Illumos
Foundation. The stated aim of the project is "[...] to become the defacto OpenSolaris distribution installed on production servers where security and bug fixes are required free of charge".
OpenIndiana was conceived around the time that negotiations between Oracle
and Sun Microsystems
were proceeding, regarding the takeover of the latter by the former, in order to ensure continued availability and further development of an OS based on OpenSolaris, which is widely used. Uncertainty among the OpenSolaris development community led some developers to form tentative plans for a fork of the existing codebase.
These plans came to full fruition following the announcement of discontinuation of Oracle support for the OpenSolaris project.
Centre in London
. The first release of the operating system was made available publicly at the same time, despite being untested. The reason for the untested release was that the OpenIndiana team set a launch date ahead of Oracle OpenWorld in order to pre-empt the release of Solaris 11 Express.
The announcement of OpenIndiana was met with a mainly positive response; over 350 people viewed the online announcement, the ISO image was downloaded over 2000 times, the Twitter account obtained over 500 followers, and numerous notable IT press websites wrote about the release. The broadcast bandwidth of the announcement was substantial, noted to top 350Mbit/second. The network package depot server experienced 20x as much traffic interested in their distribution than they originally planned for, resulting in more threads later being provisioned.
Not all reporting was positive, and some online articles have questioned the relevance of Solaris given the market penetration of Linux
. One article was critical of the OpenIndiana launch citing a lack of professionalism with regards to releasing an untested build, and the project's lack of commitment to a release schedule.
Concerns were raised about possible discontinuation of free access to the Oracle-owned compiler being used to produce OpenIndiana. In response, OpenIndiana was modified to be able to compile under the open source GNU Compiler Collection
and work is ongoing to make the compiled binaries bootable.
kernel
(the first release is still based around OS/Net). The project does use the same IPS package management system as OpenSolaris.
The OpenIndiana codebase is currently based on the majority of publicly available code from Oracle, although future releases will be based upon the Illumos code. The project is also expending efforts to make its codebase independent from Oracle-owned tools such as Sun Studio
, although that is not the main focus of the project.
A third development release, Build 151 was released on September 14, 2011. This is the first release to be based upon Illumos. A provisional release date for the stable release, codenamed Foreverware, targets either Q1 2011 or H1 2011.
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
computer operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
released as free and open source software
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
. It forked
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
from OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris was an open source computer operating system based on Solaris created by Sun Microsystems. It was also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around the software...
after the discontinuation of that project by Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
and aims to continue development and distribution of the OpenSolaris codebase. The project operates under the umbrella of the Illumos
Illumos
Illumos is a derivative of OS/Net , which basically is a Solaris/OpenSolaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities. It is dependent on OS/Net, which Illumos will follow very closely while allowing to retain changes to code which might be unacceptable to upstream...
Foundation. The stated aim of the project is "[...] to become the defacto OpenSolaris distribution installed on production servers where security and bug fixes are required free of charge".
Origins
Project Indiana was originally conceived by Sun Microsystems, to construct a binary distribution around the OpenSolaris source code base.OpenIndiana was conceived around the time that negotiations between Oracle
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
and Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
were proceeding, regarding the takeover of the latter by the former, in order to ensure continued availability and further development of an OS based on OpenSolaris, which is widely used. Uncertainty among the OpenSolaris development community led some developers to form tentative plans for a fork of the existing codebase.
These plans came to full fruition following the announcement of discontinuation of Oracle support for the OpenSolaris project.
Initial reaction
The formal announcement of the OpenIndiana project was made on September 14, 2010 at the JISCJoint Information Systems Committee
JISC is a United Kingdom non-departmental public body whose role is to support post-16 and higher education and research by providing leadership in the use of ICT in learning, teaching, research and administration...
Centre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The first release of the operating system was made available publicly at the same time, despite being untested. The reason for the untested release was that the OpenIndiana team set a launch date ahead of Oracle OpenWorld in order to pre-empt the release of Solaris 11 Express.
The announcement of OpenIndiana was met with a mainly positive response; over 350 people viewed the online announcement, the ISO image was downloaded over 2000 times, the Twitter account obtained over 500 followers, and numerous notable IT press websites wrote about the release. The broadcast bandwidth of the announcement was substantial, noted to top 350Mbit/second. The network package depot server experienced 20x as much traffic interested in their distribution than they originally planned for, resulting in more threads later being provisioned.
Not all reporting was positive, and some online articles have questioned the relevance of Solaris given the market penetration of Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. One article was critical of the OpenIndiana launch citing a lack of professionalism with regards to releasing an untested build, and the project's lack of commitment to a release schedule.
Community concerns
With the OpenSolaris binary distribution moved to SolarisExpress and the real-time feed of OpenSolaris updates discontinued, concerns abounded over what would happen to OpenIndiana if Oracle decided to stop feeding source code back into the community. The OpenIndiana team mitigated these concerns when they announced their intention to move the source code feed to the Illumos Foundation.Concerns were raised about possible discontinuation of free access to the Oracle-owned compiler being used to produce OpenIndiana. In response, OpenIndiana was modified to be able to compile under the open source GNU Compiler Collection
GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...
and work is ongoing to make the compiled binaries bootable.
Relation to Solaris, Solaris Express, Illumos
While OpenIndiana is a fork in the technical sense, it is a continuation of OpenSolaris in spirit. The project intends to deliver a System V family operating system which is binary-compatible with the Oracle products Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express. However, rather than being based around the OS/Net consolidation like OpenSolaris was, OpenIndiana will become a distribution built up around IllumosIllumos
Illumos is a derivative of OS/Net , which basically is a Solaris/OpenSolaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities. It is dependent on OS/Net, which Illumos will follow very closely while allowing to retain changes to code which might be unacceptable to upstream...
kernel
Kernel (computing)
In computing, the kernel is the main component of most computer operating systems; it is a bridge between applications and the actual data processing done at the hardware level. The kernel's responsibilities include managing the system's resources...
(the first release is still based around OS/Net). The project does use the same IPS package management system as OpenSolaris.
The OpenIndiana codebase is currently based on the majority of publicly available code from Oracle, although future releases will be based upon the Illumos code. The project is also expending efforts to make its codebase independent from Oracle-owned tools such as Sun Studio
Sun Studio (software)
The Oracle Solaris Studio compiler suite is Oracle's flagship software development product for Solaris and Linux. It was formerly known as Sun Studio...
, although that is not the main focus of the project.
Release schedule
The first development release of OpenIndiana, Build 147, was released on September 14, 2010 , while a second development release, Build 148 was released on December 17, 2010.A third development release, Build 151 was released on September 14, 2011. This is the first release to be based upon Illumos. A provisional release date for the stable release, codenamed Foreverware, targets either Q1 2011 or H1 2011.
External links
- Openindiana Announcement by Joerg Moellenkamp
- OpenIndiana Officially Announced Announcement on OSNews