OpenSolaris started life as an open-source version of Sun's venerable and well-respected Unix-based operating system Solaris. Since its first proper release over a year ago, it has moved forward by leaps and bounds, and the latest release, 2009.06, brings the OS right up to the cutting edge.It uses the Gnome desktop, and most popular software packages that are found on standard Linux distros have versions for OpenSolaris, including OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and so forth. As with Linux, most, if not all, of the software you'll need is free and open-source with OpenSolaris.
Image courtesy of OpenSolaris.com. See link for large, full-resolution image.
The new Package Manager--OpenSolaris's "one stop shop" for software--is even easier to use, and OpenSolaris's SourceJuicer will now make it even easier for developers to submit new software for testing and inclusion in the OpenSolaris repository.
Image courtesy of OpenSolaris.com. See link for large, full-resolution image.
OpenSolaris 2009.06 comes with a GUI for Time Slider, a program that takes snapshots of your hard drive for backup and retrieval purposes, similar to Apple's Time Machine.
Image courtesy of OpenSolaris.com. See link for large, full-resolution image.
On the hardware front, 2009.06 now supports a greater number of drivers, including more wifi drivers and many new video drivers for nVidia, ATI, IBM, and Sun video chipsets. For those designing and managing complicated networks, OpenSolaris's Crossbow can now virtualize many functions that previously would have required specialized networking hardware, meaning that cheaper, commodity hardware can be used instead.
The last version, 2008.11, came (and still does come) preinstalled on Toshiba Tecra® M10 and Portégé® R600 laptops. OpenSolaris 2009.06 will be available preinstalled on even more systems as the weeks and months roll on.
If you are keen to give OpenSolaris 2009.06 a try, you can download a LiveCD for free from OpenSolaris.com.
The OpenSolaris LiveCD works the same as it does for most popular Linux distros. You download the image, burn it to a CD, boot from it and run it in Live mode so that you can see if everything on your system is supported before you consider installing the OS. The LiveCD is only available for x86 and x64 formats. However, if you've got new or older SPARC hardware, be sure to grab the SPARC install CD instead!
I also had a problem running OpenSolaris on Win7 64-bit, and eventually found that if I made the following settings changes - disable ACPI, IO APIC and VT-x/AMD-v - then it would then boot.
Also, any chance to get this with Kde4?
By that logic, I guess anything using Gnome looks a lot like ubuntu.
I notice that while your shell is very functional, your GUI is not.
Please write back when your GUI is functional too.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Kind Regards.
Then don't take the bait
But also is true that you access what is under the OS using that GUI, si it's an element you cant ignore.
Exactly! Which is why I could never go back to that broken (non-existent, really) package management system that is Windows. An administration nightmare to keep everything updated.
Think all you Linux fanboys are so obviously missing the point here.
I tried to use Ubuntu/Fedora and can't for the love of me work out why anyone would want to install/remove/change/edit/add things using commands..... I should NOT have to learn basically a coding language to use an Operating system. That is what the GUI is for... to provide the user with clear menus/options for doing what they want to do...
You just encounter problem after problem if you do not understand linux commands... MacOS and Windows take up so much room but I'm sorry... it's worth the money
P.S I think I mean Unix commands... sorry I always mix up Linux Unix (noticed when reading a comment further down hehe)
1) very slow compared to others - my 9550 ran like a 486
2) despite what they advertise, it doesn't automatically identify and support as many hardware devices as other distros
3) frustrating - the package manager rebuilds each time it is run - and it takes more time than it should; although this won't be a problem once you have things setup, it's a definite pain on an initial install
Wait...did you think this was Linux?
Just take a look at the packages installed - many are borrowed from the linux world.
I know that this is supposed to be targeted at servers, but poor performance on base operations is not acceptable.
PS: you can install many deb packages without rebuilding - what does that say?
Just take a look at the packages installed - many are borrowed from the linux world.
I know that this is supposed to be targeted at servers, but poor performance on base operations is not acceptable.
The kernel is not linux based nor unix based, it is taken from Solaris. Solaris itself is UNIXv3 certified and thus UNIX (as are IBM's AIX and Apple's MacOS X Leopard).
The software is open source software and can be used for different operating systems (Linux, MacOS X, Solaris/OpenSolaris, Windows, etc.). I also don't see what the problem is with using open source software on a (open source) system (mind you, OpenSolaris is somewhat the open source version of Solaris: it's like StarOffice-OpenOffice.org).
OpenSolaris is not targeted at servers: you don't use GNOME on a server and you don't partner with Toshiba to bring out 2 notebooks with OpenSolaris if you did. Like Linux it's targeted at both servers and desktops (hence the partnership with Toshiba and the fact Sun sells some servers preinstalled with OpenSolaris).
Next time do your homework properly, this is just ridiculous :X
Absolutely nothing whatsoever! There are more systems using the deb package system or the red hat package system. I can install Linux specific stuff on FreeBSD but that doesn't turn FreeBSD into Linux. Same goes for any other operating system. That .deb system is just a way of packaging the software, you could do it in a .zip if you prefer that. A package system does not define if the OS is Linux, UNIX or something else.
(btw: I've got the not being able to edit issue as well).
It looks like Gnome. Ubuntu, by default, uses Gnome. So, any *nix environment that is using Gnome, will look similar to Ubuntu. I guess.
With the exception of the crap brown default look that ubuntu has.
Shhh... Don't dispute the creation of drama where there was none.
Also being a n00b with these linux Distros... i have tried both Ubuntu and Fedora - they are pretty similar but Ubuntu seems to have the best overall support for home users and only one I could *easily..* get my Nvidia card (285 GTX) to work on... so stick with what you have =)
In short: It's like the difference between Windows and your Ubuntu install (aka a completely different system)
A bit longer: it's not really completely different from Ubuntu since Linux and UNIX share a lot of similarities. In this case it would mean that Ubuntu is more suited for n00bs than OpenSolaris. The LiveCD is quite easy to use though and as a GNOME user you'll be able to find stuff. Ubuntu just has more software in it's repositories.
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