GNU/Solaris

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May. 14th, 2008 | 11:00 am

Adapting the GNU userland tools (and Debian package management) to the core system of a free software version of Solaris is called Nexenta. I used Solaris in university and learned a lot of unix and X window things while using it. I don't have any particular use for it, as I've only worked in situations where people could only afford GNU/Linux, and never had an legacy Solaris systems. Clearly, keeping GNU software highly portable has reaped many rewards for the day other kernels besides Linux became free software.
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Comments {5}

ccmmcc

(no subject)

from: [info]ccmmcc
date: May. 14th, 2008 05:43 pm (UTC)
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My recollection is that back in the very early 1990s, GNU software went a very long way toward making Solaris (and SunOS before that) usable in a way that they very much weren't out of the box. Editors (Emacs!), compilers (gcc), and lots more allowed you to not only get some useful work done, but also develop your own software or build other free software for use on the machines. Using those tools was my first introduction to what a Unix system could be, a peek outside the proprietary world of the big Unix vendors.

Solaris has come a long way toward being a bit more Linux-like, even developing its own packaging system, but GNU software was there first, and still leads the way.

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Aaron S. Hawley

re: portability

from: [info]aaronhawley
date: May. 14th, 2008 09:53 pm (UTC)
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You make a good point -- GNU software was always important to the Solaris operatying system. I do recall that the Solaris machines I used to use had a lot of GNU software loaded on them by the school's administrators.

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People could only afford GNU/Linux?

from: [info]brontitall.myopenid.com
date: May. 15th, 2008 12:09 am (UTC)
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To be fair, it's worth noting that for at least 3 years Solaris has been free (as in beer) for all uses.

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Aaron S. Hawley

Re: People could only afford GNU/Linux?

from: [info]aaronhawley
date: May. 15th, 2008 12:37 am (UTC)
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The big expense with Solaris -- and motiviation to use it -- was an accompanying Sun Microsystem machine.

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(no subject)

from: anonymous
date: May. 17th, 2008 05:16 pm (UTC)
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I believe its original name was SLOWARIS, but marketing thought it would be a bad idea, so they changed it.

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