About OpenSolaris
OpenSolaris is an operating system (OS), an open source project licensed under CDDL, and a community. The project's goals are innovation, collaboration, and the extension of OpenSolaris technology.
Quality Assurance
OpenSolaris is free, open source, and well-suited for desktops, laptops, servers, and data centers. The quality requirement of OpenSolaris is perhaps best stated as Production Ready All The Time.
Who Develops OpenSolaris?
OpenSolaris technical communities maintain kernel and userland consolidations and launch new technology projects. OpenSolaris is developed by communities working in the different projects. Each project focuses on one or more specific areas of the system. The OpenSolaris developer project is sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Answers to Your Questions
See the FAQs for detailed information about how to get started with the developer project. You'll learn to use the OpenSolaris.org collaboration web site to create projects and lead communities. You'll also find FAQs for licensing, contributions, and links to technical FAQs.
Which Release Fits My Needs?
The OpenSolaris source code will find a variety of uses, including being the basis for future versions of the Solaris OS product, other operating system projects, and third-party products and distributions. Following is a list of current releases.
OpenSolaris OS
OpenSolaris 2009.06 is a distribution which offers technical support from Sun Microsystems, Inc. This release includes a network-based package management system (IPS), the GNOME desktop, and LiveCD technology supported on SPARC®, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T platforms. See Getting Started With OpenSolaris 2009.06 for detailed information about this pkg(5) release delivered on a six-month cycle.
Solaris Express Community Edition
SXCE is no longer a recommended download and builds will not be available past October 2009 (see email announcement). SXCE has been superseded by the OpenSolaris OS and represents the older generation developer build of the Solaris OS. Also known as Nevada, it is updated every 2 weeks and is available as a free download.
Community Distributions
Refer to Distribution Documents for a complete list of community distributions, links and information.
See Also
- Licensing Info
Details on CDDL and other licenses used by the project. - Developer's Guide
You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. - Improving OpenSolaris
Quick start for developers - Contacts
These are the people in your neighborhood...