Submitted by Solaris Express 2/2006 (derived from Nevada Build 31) was posted yesterday, providing a host of useful improvements. Wifi, RealPlayer 10, and Gnome-Pilot support were introduced. Roughly 1150 bugs were fixed. You can obtain a free download. An overview of new features is also available.
Solaris Express 2/2006 Released
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Eugenia Loli
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This is great news. Realplayer 10 included is a good move for this.
GREAT!! Keep up the good work!
Besides drivers, is there anything else that would prevent Solaris’ distribuitions to have this new features in FreeDesktop? Like XGL?
I know this sounds dumb, but I can’t find a website that explains what Solaris Express is. Sun’s own pages assume you already know and after reading them I am none the wiser. Is it a self-contained OS-on-a-CD like Ubuntu, for example? Or do you have to have an installation of Solaris already and the Express bit is just the latest gizmos to play with? What is the difference between Solaris Express and OpenSolaris?
Puzzled.
It’s the cutting-eedge version of Solaris 10, as the website states:
“Software Express Program for Solaris benefits Developers, Community users, and Early-Adopters”
So for developers/testers who need check their programs or code against what will eventually get in the “mainstream” Solaris. Or people who just want the latest and presumably greatest.
Opensolaris are the opensourced bits of Solaris so in theory all Solaris’ are based on Opensolaris.
And yes, you install it just as you would regular Solaris.
Edited 2006-02-18 12:31
Thanks for the reply. This makes it all much clearer.
>Is it a self-contained OS-on-a-CD like Ubuntu, for example? Or do you have to have an installation of Solaris already and the Express bit is just the latest gizmos to play with? What is the difference between Solaris Express and OpenSolaris?
Solaris Express is basicly a beta version of some upcoming Solaris version(11?). It is a self contained distro which works out of the box. OpenSolaris, on the other hand, is only the kernel and some userland programs released under an open source license and thus not a complete distro like Solaris and Solaris Express.
Since this is turning into a Q&A, I’ll add mine. If I understand it correctly, we’ve got the following:
SolarisExpress: OpenSolaris “head” branch with third party stuff thrown in. More like a Linux “distro”. Free for all intents and purposes.
OpenSolaris: Commercial Solaris with some unknown quantity of stuff removed (volume manager?, zfs?, Dtrace?). Not clear on this. Free.
Solaris: Commercial Solaris. Has all the goodies. No idea if it’s free or not free, if it is free what platforms are supported. Assume it comes with all the good stuff.
Corrections please!
Sun or the OpenSolaris community really should put this into a FAQ somewhere. Here’s my udnerstanding (should be mostly correct, although simplified):
OpenSolaris :-
The code and community based on the open source part of the Solaris OS, including almost all the cutting edge technologies, such as DTrace(in fact it is _the first_ component released) and ZFS – my two favorite.
OpenSolaris uses CDDL license.
OpenSolaris by itself is not a complete OS or distribution. However there’re so far 3 or more pure-opensource distributions based on OpenSolaris.
Solaris Express: Community Release :-
The most cutting edge (nearly bi-weekly) build of new Solaris release (code name Nevada) based on OpenSolaris code and some others (including closed code) packaged by Sun.
It is a complete OS distribution, although not 100% opensource.
Solaris Express :-
Almost the same as Solaris Express Community Release, but more tested, therefore slightly behind the cutting edge. For example, the lastest SECR is based on build-33 of OpenSolaris, while SE is based on build-31.
Solaris :-
Sun’s commercial OS distribution. Solaris 10 is free of charge, even for commercial use. Service plan can be purchased separately.
Natually, the next generation Solaris release after 10 will be based on OpenSolaris development.
My religion still forbids me to download any free software that requires registration. Somehow just seeing FREE and REGISTER together simply turns me off. (If those two pop up together I rather buy official commercial release, and even that only in case where it is best tool for the needs. Which automaticaly excludes my personal usage)
I was hoping it will change a little bit with recent Sun moves. Guess I will have to wait for some distro based on GPL/OpenSolaris then.
Well, it was a short curriosity for me:)
Correction: you can download without (at least Nexenta) registration on
http://cuddletech.com/genunix/
Edited 2006-02-18 14:31
Just use BugMeNot 😉
“My religion still forbids me to download any free software that requires registration. Somehow just seeing FREE and REGISTER together simply turns me off. (If those two pop up together I rather buy official commercial release, and even that only in case where it is best tool for the needs. Which automaticaly [sic] excludes my personal usage)”
It’s your loss then. For a group making the worlds most advanced OS and giving it away free only to require a free registration so as to track it’s use by number and type is more than generous enough!
It’s your loss then. For a group making the worlds most advanced OS and giving it away free only to require a free registration so as to track it’s use by number and type is more than generous enough!
Now…, I don’t mind getting modded down, because people here on OSNews usualy don’t read between the lines, or better, usualy don’t read at all. But…, why it would be my loss? I’m interested in that one.
Because I preffer buying commercial over free with registration? But I don’t mind using/trying free without registration? In the end (or better, both acceptable cases for me), result is the same OS, but once with commercial support included (in this case I feel perfectly comfortable with registering) and once incognito.
I don’t need “free and todays” so badly to go over my religion. If something is free, than put it free without even trying to know who I am and what do I do with it.
Don’t need generosity with tracking clause. And as I said I don’t have problems with paying for Solaris (it is better for some things than others and in my case software is Solaris-Windows only (which is a no brainer here, *X over Win any day), so it deserves to be bought. And I did bought about 10 for my customers and 1 for me). But free®istrations do bug me too much.
World greatest? You are just to biased. There is no “best hammer for every nail”. Every OS has its advantages and its weak points, and Solaris has them too.
Edited 2006-02-18 20:12
And what religion is that? All of the e-mail I receive from Sun Microsystems is of the “opt-in” category and is tied to specific areas of their web site, not Solaris Express. I have also downloaded and used Solaris Express since August 2003 and was contacted only by Sun in response to questions I had concerning Solaris Express.
I also have to agree with zemplar, it is your loss.
I also have to agree with zemplar, it is your loss.
First, my religion is my religion. Leave it at this. It’s not worth it. Rather answer me on these two questions.
Second remark before questions. Obviously you can’t read either. My question to zemplar was What kind of loss? Same question detailed here for you
Explanation for you! You use freely available, I use commercial Solaris.
1. ARE THOSE TWO DIFFERENT? OR WHAT? Remember I don’t need bleeding edge, rather stable.
2. Am I handicapped since I use commercial version comparing to you using free? If this is the case then Sun has seriously fscked up bussines plan and customer relations
If answers are No and No then you just served as example of non-readers.
As I said, I don’t mind money if I like something. I even buy some distros that don’t even plan to unpack. Same as I plan to do now with NLD10, RH (while my personal installations will be either Ubuntu or Fedora). Good work deserves to be supported (they both do a lot of good work on Linux, so why not) and this is the reason why I would buy Solaris too if position would be similiar (with that I mean if my use would be constricted to /*free*/ as you are), which I bought anyway since I needed it for bussines. I just have stricter definition of free and commercial, nothing else (but pleas leave this religion of mine alone, obviously you don’t understand it and I don’t expect it to).
I use Solaris everyday and to use your line “Obviously you can’t read either” because if you could read, you would know that I post regularly on this site concerning Solaris and have contributed two articles, one on Solaris Express and the other on Solaris 10.
I use Solaris Express as a testbed for features that we might want to implement in the future at where I work, for example ZFS is not part of Solaris 10 so unless you download Solaris Express how are you going to evaluate ZFS? And how is Sun going to improve Solaris unless they get feedback on features and problems with Solaris 10 and Solaris Express?
And I think you have things confused, Solaris Express is like Fedora Core in that it is experimental, and if you want support you can purchase it for a six month period from Sun for $99. Solaris 10 you can download for free and use free resources for support, or you can purchase a Support Plan from Sun if you need enhanced support.
Thanks, this was finaly explanatory enough. Even though you understand it wrong again, your answer hit hammer on the nail.
you would know that I post regularly on this site concerning Solaris and have contributed two articles, one on Solaris Express and the other on Solaris 10.
I know that, don’t worry. This is why I continued conversation after almost being pointless.
I use Solaris Express as a testbed for features that we might want to implement in the future at where I work, for example ZFS is not part of Solaris 10 so unless you download Solaris Express how are you going to evaluate ZFS? And how is Sun going to improve Solaris unless they get feedback on features and problems with Solaris 10 and Solaris Express?
Ok, ZFS can be said as one of the things I have to wait for in my case. Agreed. I’m anxiously waiting for this one to pop out in commercial release from base install. (I could probably get it working there too, but I like things better when they work out from default. Nothing else, just another religion of mine. I can’t afford tweaking too much with OS to get some random problems, because my usage is mostly commercial). And ZFS is impressive.
And I think you have things confused, Solaris Express is like Fedora Core in that it is experimental, and if you want support you can purchase it for a six month period from Sun for $99. Solaris 10 you can download for free and use free resources for support, or you can purchase a Support Plan from Sun if you need enhanced support.
Ok, I bought 10 with support for me and I plan to extend it with time as needed (I think time is nearing rapidly for that).
You might be implementing server features, so I agree with your comment about how to test. I don’t. Solaris for me holds specific features, which could be satisfied long ago before 10. So to answer you: How? I can only say: Why? I don’t need that.
Now, finally (or at least if I understood you correctly). I should have extended benefits in stability and lacking bleeding edge. As I stated in all my comments, I don’t need bleeding edge as much as I need stability. Meaning, my decision was correct one for my needs not wrong.
But, Fedora and Redhat finaly gives me correct answer. RH doesn’t put as much quality control in Fedora as in RHEL. That’s why I preffer RHEL for my commercial applications/developments and Fedora for my personal desktops.
In my translation of (Fedora-RHEL)=(Express-Solaris) explanation this would mean exactly what I was asking from original poster and once from you. I actualy should get some benefits over /*free*/ just as I was thinking and not bad.
I was only currious why it is bad for me that I decided for commercial instead of free (a conclusion drawn from original poster without knowing what I need from Solaris), nothing else and not trolling over Solaris (you can check my posts, I never troll Solaris, why would I, it is just as good as Linux, one better in some things and second better in other, but to admit I do troll a lot (and I MEAN A LOT IN THIS CASE) McNeally/Schwartz who mostly give a bad name to Sun with their Linux-hate/love daily changing of their mind). And as I claimed, it is not bad in my case. Even in my first answer I already posted that I don’t expect anybody to understand my free/acceptable relation (this is my personal religion and I never enforce it to anyone). And yes, since Fedora fits my /*free*/ religion, Fedora is on my personal desktops everywhere. Again I don’t consider that a loss. Solaris just has to find the way into my home, just as Solaris already found the way into my bussiness by fitting my requirement and wishes (well, the way to my home is the same, my requirement and wishes, just that I’m more strict at home because of my religion). Well, I think GPL/Solaris is a long way from now and Nexenta is preety much very far from polished product, so I don’t plan to hold my breath.
Again, thanks for your answer.
Edited 2006-02-19 21:38
Has anyone gotten this to work in Virtual PC? It boots up but the installation never starts. It gets to where it says “Use is subject to license terms” and then sits with a blinking curser doing nothing. Not compatible?
You may be running into an issue concerning
some package unpacking that occurs in the miniroot.
It’s fixed in the next Solaris Express release
but the workaround is to be patient.
It will
eventually continue.
Software Express for Solaris is not free (as beer; price $99) for Commercial Use.
Pay for a beta version ?
Is Solaris free ($0 price) for commercial use ?
Is Solaris free ($0 price) for commercial use ?
Yes.
What makes Solaris Express the best….
Zones – chroot/jails on steroids more secure and flexible
http://uadmin.blogspot.com/2005/03/zones-links.html
ZFS – state of the art, stable expandable filesystem chksumed from ram to disk, raidz (think raid5 with fast writes) 128bits, basicly limitless, and does snapshots
http://www.google.com/custom?domains=uadmin.blogspot.com&q=zfs&site…
fireengine – brand new ultra fast written from the ground up network engine, this system will handle networking better than most other OSes on the same hardware
dtrace – the ultimate enterprise/production ready debug tool http://uadmin.blogspot.com/2005/03/dtrace-links.html
SMF – replaces ancient sysV start up scripts, and it monitors the apps as well restarting if necessary, one command to see the status of all daemons running on the system.
Predictive Self healing — interface to cope with and protect from hardware failure, a bad block of ram can be locked out and the system still keeps running, bad cpus are offlined, and will stay off lined untill the cpu is replaced.
brandz — run native linux apps in a zone
RBAC — role based access control, allows you to assign a role to a user, and he is given the power to do his task, without complete root level access, user admin can create accounts. etc. individual apps can be given only the prevledges it needs, no longer must an app begiven root to open a socket lower that 1024
All of the above are very stable and close to being production ready, in fact many companies have been running them on production systems without problems for months.
Solaris Express :-
Almost the same as Solaris Express Community Release, but more tested, therefore slightly behind the cutting edge. For example, the lastest SECR is based on build-33 of OpenSolaris, while SE is based on build-31.
Solaris :-
Sun’s commercial OS distribution. Solaris 10 is free of charge, even for commercial use. Service plan can be purchased separately.
Natually, the next generation Solaris release after 10 will be based on OpenSolaris development.
If it is true, why Solaris Express Subscription is $99 for commercial use and Solaris (the Sun’s official version) is free for commercial use ?
This don’t make sense…
I tried it several times, and honestly, I feel it’s commercial-grade software. Quite impressive, if you consider how Sun is actually testing new features, in Express!
I hope they will improve hw support.
My pcmcia 3c372 was not detected on my laptop.
I speak of solaris 1/2006 and nexentaos alpha2.
http://homepage2.nifty.com/mrym3/taiyodo/eng/index.htm
that works for 3c589 as the author said to me but not with 3c572.
A driver for 3c574 would work for 3c572 too (at least with linux, the author said) but this alternative
http://www.lynnsoft.com/solaris.htm
is a commercial solution.
So I cannot use solaris express.
I admit my pcmcia is “old”.
netbsd, freebsd, fedora, opensuse, slackware supported it, though.
Edited 2006-02-20 07:04
Siska, if you haven’t already, please come over to bugs.opensolaris.org, and file a bug. That’s how we measure what users want.