December 1st, 2008
Can Linux and Solaris be married?
It’s pretty obvious that OpenSolaris, despite its advantages as a carrier-class operating system, especially in file management, is losing its war for survival with Linux.
Blame its developer relations, or Linux momentum, or the desire by large companies either not to divide their attention or not to support a competitor.
It would be a tragedy for Linux if OpenSolaris failed. But in the current economic environment a lot of unthinkable things become possible.
So can they be combined?
At Nexenta, they are.
Nexenta (its symbol is a giraffe) combines the OpenSolaris kernel with Userland, the open source filesystem. (Not to be confused with UserLand Software.)
The result is what FossBoss Ahmed Kamal calls SolaBuntu, a good combination of power and usability. It’s best on a server, but Linux-heads will not require retraining to start using it.
Nexenta has supporters in many corners of the world, and its rise illustrates a key advantage of open source, adaptability. As a company Sun may or may not survive, but by making Solaris open source the company has assured a great legacy.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 12/01/08
