Solaris, OpenSolaris, Nevada, Indiana, SXDE, SXCE - What ?

Friday Jul 11, 2008

Several people ask and asked me about what different Solaris version and distributions actually exist, and what are the differences.

Having seen this very good entry on the great - German - Solaris blog "Das Solarium", I thought I take the freedom and translate it into English:

Solaris 9

• It's still shipping
• Supported by Sun Services
• No more innovations or updates
  
• Source code is maintained by Sun Services
  
• Needs a valid license
• For SPARC and x86 platforms

Solaris 10

• Current version
• Supported by Sun Services
• Typically a six month update cycle
• Current update is Update 5 (Solaris 10 5/08)
• Updates typically bring new innovation, performance gains, fixes, new hardware support, etc.
• For SPARC and x86 platforms
  

OpenSolaris - The Source

• That's what's called "Nevada"
• Available at, and everything you need to know, at: opensolaris.org
• Source code and tools to produce Solaris binaries and distributions
• Source code maintained by OpenSolaris community developers
• Great innovation that might eventually be built into future Solaris releases
• Ongoing source code updates
• No support available, bugs and defects can be discussed at opensolaris.org
  
• Free to use
  
• Participate !

SXCE - Solaris Express Community Edition

• Binary distribution of Nevada source
• Ready to be installed, like Solaris
• Test new features without having to build them yourself
• Typically, a new build by Sun Solaris Engineering ca. every two weeks
• Free to use
• For SPARC and x86 platforms

SXDE - Solaris Express Developer Edition

• Binary distribution tailored specifically for developers
• To test some features, which also includes developer tools
• Release 1/08 (January 2008) was the latest and last release (now, OpenSolaris 2008.05 is available - see below)
  
• Free to use
• For x86 platforms only
  

OpenSolaris 2008.05

• That's what's called "Indiana"
• Binary distribution released by Sun Microsystems
• Bootable LiveCD available
• Great for developers and students !
  
• Lots of new features and innovations, such as IPS, ZFS boot, etc.
• Several package repositories available
• Release cycle will be ca. every six months
• New 18 month support model, specifically for OpenSolaris
• Free to use, pay for support
• For now on x86 platforms, SPARC to follow soon

Other OpenSolaris-based distributions do also exist, and can be checked out here.

Like this post? | | | |

Posted at 02:42PM Jul 11, 2008 by Markus Weber in OpenSolaris
Tags: opensolaris solaris