The Solaris Operating Environment is a computer operating system, based on the proprietary UNIX variant SunOS developed by Sun Microsystems. Solaris is slated to be released under the Common Development and Distribution License, an OSI-certified Open-Source license, in 2005. Solaris 10 with the new Java Desktop System (JDS). ... JDS screenshot Sun Java Desktop System (JDS) is an operating system and/or a GUI from Sun Microsystems, for the low-cost corporate desktop computer market. ... A software developer is an entity, either a company or individual, that creates software. ... Sun Microsystems is a computer, semiconductor and software manufacturer headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley. ... UNIX is a portable, multi-tasking and multi-user computer operating system originally developed by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... In computer science, the kernel is the fundamental part of an operating system. ... A software license is a type of proprietary or gratiuitious license as well as a memorandum of contract between a producer and a user of computer software — sometimes called an End User License Agreement (EULA) — that specifies the perimeters of the permission granted by the owner to the user. ... Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is an open source license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based the Mozilla Public License, version 1. ... The front page of the English Wikipedia website. ... The tower of a personal computer (specifically a Power Mac G5). ... In computing, an operating system (OS) is the system software responsible for the direct control and management of hardware and basic system operations. ... UNIX is a portable, multi-tasking and multi-user computer operating system originally developed by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ... SunOS was the version of Unix used by Sun Microsystems for their workstations that debuted in 1992. ... Sun Microsystems is a computer, semiconductor and software manufacturer headquartered in Santa Clara, California, in Silicon Valley. ... Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is an open source license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based the Mozilla Public License, version 1. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

Early versions, based on BSD UNIX, were simply called "SunOS." The shift to a System V code base in SunOS 5 was marked by changing the name to Solaris 2; after version 2.6, Sun dropped the "2." from the name. Earlier versions were retroactively named Solaris 1.x. However, the term "SunOS" is still sometimes used to describe modern versions of Solaris. In this context, SunOS normally refers to the operating system itself, and Solaris is the SunOS operating system plus a graphical user environment, ONC+, and networking enhancements. Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) is the UNIX derivative distributed by the University of California, Berkeley starting in the 1970s. ... AT&T UNIX System V was one of the versions of the UNIX operating system. ... Retroactive continuity – commonly contracted to the portmanteau word retcon – refers to new information later added to historical material or deliberately changing previously established facts in a work of serial fiction. ...

License

Although based on a number of open standards, Solaris is proprietary rather than free software in terms of licensing. Both binary and source versions have been downloadable without cost at various times, although under changing terms and restrictions as Sun explored a number of business models. Sun recently confirmed (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&e=7&u=/ap/sun_solaris10) their intention to make Solaris 10 free software under the OpenSolaris project (the kernel debugging and profiling tool, DTrace, has already been released as part of this project). Sun's Common Development and Distribution License, which was approved after review by Open Source Initiative, has been selected as the license. Open standards are publicly available specifications for achieving a specific task. ... Something proprietary is something exclusively owned by someone, often with connotations that it is exclusive and cannot be used by other parties without negotiations. ... Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), is software which is free as in freedom, not as in beer (also referred to as libre or freedom software). ... OpenSolaris is a project created by Sun Microsystems to create an open source version of their proprietary Solaris operating system. ... DTrace is a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework found in Suns Solaris 10 for troubleshooting systemic problems in real time. ... Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is an open source license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based the Mozilla Public License, version 1. ... The Open Source Initiative is an organization dedicated to promoting open source software. ...

Supporting Architectures

Solaris is primarily written to run on SPARC processors. There is also a version called Solaris x86 that runs on PCs. Solaris was also ported to the PowerPC architecture for version 2.5.1, but the port was cancelled almost as soon as it was released. Solaris 10 is available for x86-64 as well as SPARC and x86 architectures. Solaris has a reputation for being well-suited to SMP and supporting a large number of CPUs. Sun also plans to implement parts of Linux APIs in Solaris 10, allowing Solaris x86 to natively run Linux binaries. SPARC (Scalable Processor ARChitecture) is a pure big-endian RISC microprocessor architecture originally designed in 1985 by Sun Microsystems. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... PowerPC is a RISC microprocessor architecture created by the 1991 Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for workstations, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors as well. ... The AMD64 or x86-64 is a 64-bit processor architecture invented by AMD. It is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. ... x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. ... Symmetric Multiprocessing, or SMP, is a multiprocessor computer architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory. ... CPU can stand for: in computing: Central processing unit in journalism: Commonwealth Press Union in law enforcement: Crime prevention unit in software: Critical patch update, a type of software patch distributed by Oracle Corporation CPU is a TLA, a type of acronym. ... Tux, a penguin, is the official Linux mascot. ... Computer files can be divided into two broad categories: binary and text. ...

Solaris is tightly integrated with Sun's SPARC hardware, and is designed and marketed as a combined package. This has often lead to more reliable systems, but at a cost premium over commodity PC hardware. However, since the availability of commodity 64-bit CPU (like AMD64), the latest version of Solaris, Solaris 10, has been designed with x86-64 architecture in mind. And Sun heavily marketed its Solaris x86 with its AMD64-based entry-level server. The AMD64 or x86-64 or x64 is a 64-bit processor architecture invented by AMD. It is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. ...

Desktop Environment

The first Solaris desktop environment was OpenWindows (http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/806-2901). It was followed by CDE in Solaris 2.6. Sun's Java Desktop System, which is based on GNOME, is included with Solaris 10. In graphical computing, a desktop environment (DE) offers a complete graphical user interface (GUI) solution to operate a computer. ... CDE on Unix (Solaris 8) DECwindows CDE on OpenVMS 7. ... JDS screenshot Sun Java Desktop System (JDS) is an operating system and/or a GUI from Sun Microsystems, for the low-cost corporate desktop computer market. ... Lawn Gnome A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by small stature and living underground. ...

Versions

The version of SunOS that a Solaris release is running can normally be found by adding a 5 in front of the Solaris version (so Solaris 8 runs on top of SunOS 5.8). The most recent versions of Solaris (as of early 2005) are Solaris 7, the 64-bit Solaris 8, Solaris 9 (released May 22, 2002), and Solaris 10 (released February 1, 2005). May 22 is the 142nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (143rd in leap years). ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ...

See also

• Comparison of operating systems
• OpenSolaris
• Common Development and Distribution License

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of operating systems. ... OpenSolaris is a project created by Sun Microsystems to create an open source version of their proprietary Solaris operating system. ... Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) is an open source license, produced by Sun Microsystems, based the Mozilla Public License, version 1. ...

External links

• Official Solaris page (http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/)
• Adminschoice.com (http://www.adminschoice.com/) - Solaris system administration articles
• BigAdmin (http://www.sun.com/bigadmin)
• Sunfreeware.com (http://www.sunfreeware.com/) - Freeware for Solaris
• Blastwave.org (http://www.blastwave.org/) - Collection of Solaris software packages
• SunHELP (http://www.sunhelp.org/) - Solaris news, resources, and discussion
• Solaris Central (http://www.solariscentral.org/) - Solaris news and discussion
• Sun Country (http://alanpae.tripod.com/) - Hundreds of Solaris related links
• Solaris on mobile computers (laptops, notebooks) (http://tuxmobil.org/mobile_solaris.html)
• Solaris x86 (http://www.solaris-x86.org/) - Solaris x86 portal