Sun Microsystems is set to license OpenSolaris under the upcoming GNU GPLv3 in addition to the existing Common Development and Distribution License, sources close to the company have told eWEEK. "The next version of Solaris will include things like GNU Userland, which is already being attempted with OpenSolaris, while open-source solutions from other communities for things like package management also look very promising. Dual-licensing OpenSolaris with GPLv3 could make this even easier," said a source who declined to be named.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-10-09
If you meant the /usr/sfw outdated/incomplete collection, I'm going to chuckle. :p
I'm hoping they filled it out a bit more, and actually included relatively up to date versions of the GNU userland. /usr/sfw is a bit laughable at the moment. No offense intended! I do realize the "issues" behind a lot of the outdatedness, but there has been sufficient time to get that sorted (assuming it was a priority, which I somehow doubt it was. gcc 3.4 here I come!)
$ /usr/sfw/bin/gcc --version
gcc (GCC) 3.4.3 (csl-sol210-3_4-branch+sol_rpath)
$ /usr/sfw/bin/gmake --version
GNU Make 3.80
$ /usr/sfw/bin/wget --version
GNU Wget 1.9.1
Etc, etc. 
Most of the userland is 2+ years old, if not older. A lot of useful utilities are missing, so on and so forth. I don't mean to be harsh, I just look forward to the day it's more complete and more "updated". I know stability is paramount (I run servers, trust me - I understand) - but it can be hard to live without some of the "new" functionality, and with some of the tools being as old as they are - it's not just stability considerations keeping them crufty, it's lack of resources being applied to that area of the userland. There are arguments for both positions.
Member since:
2005-10-09
... upgrade is great. I know the reasoning/logic behind the crufty userland that exists now, but this is a welcome update for me. Maybe a reasonable PATH will be default, as well.
Package management that makes sense? Whoa. Guess I hopped on the Solaris bandwagon at the right time. Can't wait to see how all this turns out, here's to Solaris 11!
PS - I could care less about the licensing issues as topic reads. It might make life easier for the linux-lovers when/if they decide to participate in OSOL, however, bringing more of a community into the fray. I just hope we don't end up with the fragmented development that linux suffers from.