There are rumours about possibility of using also GPLv3, but this is not important here. The important thing is, that based on OpenSolaris, a few distributions have been created, such as BeleniX, NexentaOS or ShilliX - all of them with a different degree of connections to the original project. Some of them are just tools and kernel recompilations, others (like NexentaOS) only use the OpenSolaris kernel together with GNU system tools (originating from Ubuntu, recompiled for OpenSolaris kernel).

There wouldn’t be anything strange about this, unless one spots, that over these three years, the “OpenSolaris” term was used in relation to the operating system, that is - note, similarly to Linux - the kernel. The OpenSolaris project has assimilated subsequent Solaris components (despite the latter being a commercial product of SMI), allowing for its larger and larger recompilation.

Some time later, the Indiana Project has emerged, that targets leveraging the shortcomings of the “old” Solaris. This as a fact wouldn’t be also strange by any means, unless you note, that somehow around February 2008, the Sun’s marketing department started to put new names on pieces already known. It emerged, that Indiana was to become “the” OpenSolaris, distribution, with exactly *the* name used for the whole project. Such an “Only True OpenSolaris by Sun”. The people affiliated with the Indiana Project had no influence on this shift - this has been decided at management level of SMI. However, some of the “old” community members took it offensive to be “robbed” of their project and abuse of trademark executed by SMI. *The* project *and* trademark, which have been (at the start of the project) promised to be jointly managed by the donor and the community. As one might follow, nothing relieves the atmosphere better, than a good flame war took place: [ogb-discuss] Sun’s Responses to the OpenSolaris Trademark Questions

All that discussion is not really something interesting in particular, I present it here more out of historian’s duty. One might see with this example, how hard is it to set a known product free, and then to please both the community and the existing customers. The outcome is, however, that one can download the OpenSolaris *distribution* from opensolaris.org. It is however interesting to know the impact of all that on the OpenSolaris *project*. Recommended reading : FAQ: General at OpenSolaris.org.

Currently, the OpenSolaris project is “the Operating System (OS), the code base and community”. Initially, the project contained the source code of the kernel, the network layer, the libraries and the system commands of “Sun Solaris OS”, all of that known as “OS/Networking consolidation”, O/N in short. However, freeing the subsequent Solaris pieces, had an impact on one of the project goals. The one that became “to free the most of Solaris OS legally possible way”. For the kernel in question, its name (O/N) has been emphasised, and the whole bundle now is named generally “OpenSolaris-related technologies”. These include the following:

• OpenSolaris source code (most interesting!)
• Solaris Express Community Edition
• Solaris Express Developer Edition
• OpenSolaris Developer Preview (the Indiana Project)
• Solaris OS

Subsequent Sun Solaris editions (the last of the above) are now to be based on OpenSolaris technologies. However, it is a lot of things, where you see the hand of Sun from far, far away

So, what have we learned by all that? Well, at least we’ve learned to distinguish between OpenSolaris as a Project and OpenSolaris as a Kernel/Distribution that emerged from it. But while these two (or more) entities share the same name… how are we supposed to tell them apart? Wait… isn’t it the exact question I asked at the beginning of this rant?

Author: Wiktor Wandachowicz. Translated-by : el_es