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Solaris Archive

Nexenta Alpha 7 Released

  Submitted by Patrik Buckau Solaris 23 Comments
Nexenta alpha 7 has been released. "OpenSolaris & NWS build 61 (non-debug); installer: new partitioning wizard, installer log (via F3), usability fixes, built-in driver availability detection; improved SVR4 compatibility (pkgadd, pkgrm, etc.); improved live upgrade - it is believed to work for all previously released alphas."
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Sun Hopes for Linux-Like Solaris

Solaris 67 Comments
In an effort to spur adoption of Solaris, Sun has begun a project code-named Indiana to try to give its operating system some of the trappings of Linux. The project is one of the items on the to-do list of Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian version of Linux and, as of March, Sun's chief operating systems officer. Though he wouldn't confirm the name of the project, Murdock - who's from Indiana - discussed the project's essence at the JavaOne conference here Monday, and Sun spokesman Russ Castronovo confirmed the name.
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Sun’s Solaris Success Paves Way for Next-Gen OS Push

Solaris 35 Comments
"Sun's CEO Jonathan Schwartz loves to splatter the media with the line that Windows, Red Hat Linux and Solaris stand as the only operating systems of significance in the server kingdom. We've spent the last few years struggling to appreciate the seriousness of that claim. Sun's declining system sales failed to inspire much optimism about the company conquering the data centers of tomorrow with a deflating 'venerable' OS. A couple of recent items, however, have tweaked our view of Schwartz's favored claim. It could well be that Solaris - of all things - provides the 'iPod moment' Sun seeks." In the meantime, Sun upped the speed of some of its SPARC chips.
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Solaris JumpStart for x86/x64 Platforms

  Submitted by Robert Escue Solaris 1 Comment
"Sun's Solaris JumpStart technology is used to automate the installation of the Solaris Operating System and other associated software on multiple nodes of a network. Using Solaris JumpStart software on the Solaris 10 OS for x86/x64 platforms is essentially the same as on Solaris 10 OS for SPARC platforms. However, there are some subtle differences that need to be addressed for correct operation. This document provides the steps and explanations necessary to set up a JumpStart server for Solaris 10 on a Sun x86/x64 machine, along with configuring JumpStart for two or more clients."
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Murdock Aims to Close Solaris ‘Usability Gap’

  Submitted by Frank Lopez Solaris 37 Comments
Ian Murdock says he drew a lot of puzzled looks from his colleagues in the Linux community when he joined Sun Microsystems in its newly created position of chief operating platforms officer. 'What's a Linux guy doing at Sun?' he was asked. After all, Ian Murdock is the 'Ian' in Debian Linux, the distribution he created with his wife, Deb. Only eight days on his new job, Murdock spoke at a Software Developers Forum Tuesday in Santa Clara, California, where Sun is based. Murdock, 33, outlined what he thinks needs to be done in his new job in an interview with Robert Mullins.
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Review: Solaris 10 11/06

  Submitted by kaiwai Solaris 58 Comments
OSNews reader kaiwai has published a review of Solaris 10 11/06, and concludes: "Solaris Express is coming along; and for those who do want bleeding edge, ultra-super-duper features, then Solaris probably isn't your best bet, then again, assuming you're into that stuff, you'd be better catered for by the likes of Gentoo for example - for those of us who would prefer to have stability above features, then give Solaris a go and if you can make a contribution to Solaris by way of code contributions, then by all means do so."
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Simon Phipps Announces ‘Get OpenSolaris’

  Submitted by binarycrusader Solaris 53 Comments
Simon Phipps writes on his weblog: "I'm in Berlin today opening the very first OpenSolaris Developer Conference. I'll be announcing that the new Get.OpenSolaris.org site that allows anyone in the world to order a kit containing DVDs of OpenSolaris distributions, documentation and source. With a nod towards the good folks at Ubuntu, Sun is sponsoring the kits so that they are completely free of charge, including global delivery. Hopefully this will mean even folks without the bandwidth to download DVD ISOs will be able to join the OpenSolaris community."
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Easy Solaris 10 Telnet Exploit Found

  Submitted by stare Solaris 43 Comments
If you've got Solaris with telnet running, you could be in for a big surprise. There is a fairly trivial Solaris telnet 0-day exploit in the wild . "This was posted to Full-Disclosure. Remote root exploit in the Solaris 10/11 telnet daemon. It doesn't require any skill, any exploit knowledge, and can be scripted for mass attacks. Basically if you pass a '-fusername' as an argument to the –l option you get full access to the OS as the user specified. In my example I do it as bin but it worked for regular users, just not for root. This combined with a reliable local privilege escalation exploit would be devastating. Expect mass scanning and possibly the widespread exploitation of this vulnerability."
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Sun Updates Solaris 10; HP To Support Solaris

  Submitted by nixuser Solaris 13 Comments
Sun has announced a series of updates to its flagship Solaris operating system. Solaris 10 11/06 OS enhances efficiency, safety, and reliability. New security features include Solaris Trusted Extensions, which protects sensitive data and applications using labeled security technology. Secure By Default Networking automatically configures a system to be impervious to network attacks by disabling many unused services, thus reducing the network exposure, while leaving the system fully functional for typical use. In the meantime, HP will be supporting Solaris on its systems.
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Sun To License OpenSolaris Under GPLv3

Solaris 109 Comments
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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Solaris 8: NIS Installation and Configuration

  Submitted by Rob Newcater Solaris 5 Comments
"This is a step-by-step account of the method I used recently to install and configure a NIS master and slaves on servers running Solaris 8. The steps detailed should work fine on other versions of Solaris, but as I have not explicitly tested other versions (except as clients) you may encounter issues. The clients used with this setup ranged from Solaris 7 to Solaris 10. The installation was in a medium-sized Solaris-only farm (100+ hosts)."
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Sun Cluster 3.2 Released

  Submitted by milek Solaris 1 Comment
"Solaris Cluster provides high availability and global disaster recovery to suit the evolving needs of virtually any datacenter in any industry: across local distances, campuses or metropolitan areas, and across the world, ensuring business continuity without compromise. With out-of-the box support for the largest number of commercial and open-source applications, open and flexible configurations for both horizontal and vertical scaling, integration with the Solaris kernel and support on both SPARC and x64 platforms, Solaris Cluster provides industrial-strength high availability to your applications." There's documentation too.
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Solaris 10 11/06 Released

  Submitted by Rob Shepherd Solaris 69 Comments
"Sun has released Solaris 10 11/06 today. Internally, we called this 'Update 3'. The biggie features for this update are Trusted Extensions and Secure by Default. Yes, all of the security features you loved back in Trusted Solaris, are now standard as part of Solaris 10. This isn't just for the feds either. Banks love it. Wall St. loves it. Corporations that need to follow Sarbanes-Oxley love it." Get it here, a what's new guide is also available.
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Sun Eyeing GPL for OpenSolaris

Solaris 61 Comments
Will Sun look to use the GPL for offerings it has already open-sourced, such as the OpenSolaris version of its operating system? That was the topic of discussion in this exchange between Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's president and CEO, and Rich Green, the company's senior VP of software at an event to formally open-source Java. "We will take a close look at it," Green said, adding that it was possible that the familiarity and comfort level developers have with the GPL may result in Sun adopting it for OpenSolaris.
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