OpenSolaris vs Linux

[Michael Lauzon]

Found this article linked to on Slashdot, here is a brief excerpt, the
URL to the article will follow:

So you've been playing around with alternative OSes for a while and
you reckon you've got this Linux thing mastered. Maybe you're tried
Mac OS X and found it a bit too restrictive (or expensive); perhaps
you've kicked the Hurd's tyres and thought you'll come back to it when
it's something more than just a clever name.

If you're looking for something else to play with, we humbly suggest
OpenSolaris. Like Mac OS X, which we looked at recently, OpenSolaris
is based on Unix; also like OS X, it's best known for running on a
specific processor (in this case Sun's SPARC architecture) but now
works on a range of architectures including x86. Unlike OS X though,
OpenSolaris is open source, so you can download it for free and start
fiddling with it.

We're not interested in a direct, head-to-head comparison, because for
many people it's largely a matter of taste which one they choose. But
we do want to help people see what makes OpenSolaris a little
different from Linux, so read on for our quick-start guide for Linux
users wanting to dip their toe into OpenSolaris and see which they
prefer...

The source code to Solaris (well, most of it) was released to the
community in June 2005, and to make sure that it became a usable home
system rather than just a server OS, Sun hired Ian Murdock, founder of
the Debian project, to produce OpenSolaris. The first release appeared
in May 2008 and the distribution adopted an approximately half-yearly
release cycle: after OpenSolaris 2008.05 we got versions 2008.11 and
2009.06.

Sun advertises its operating system as a full-blown distribution,
including the Gnome desktop. But is OpenSolaris interesting enough for
a Linux user? If you're happy with your favourite Linux distribution,
why would you try OpenSolaris? In some aspects it's much like a
regular Linux distribution, but in other aspects it's completely
different. Do the exciting features of this operating system outweigh
the trouble of learning another Unix environment with other tools?

http://www.tuxradar.com/content/opensolaris-vs-linux


-- 
Sincerely,

Michael Lauzon
--
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