OpenIndiana is an illumos based Unix-like distribution derived from OpenSolaris.
-Constructed as a general purpose operating system with enterprise class features, OpenIndiana Hipster is developed by the community, and for the community.
+
OpenIndiana is an illumos based Unix distribution derived from OpenSolaris.
+Engineered as a general-purpose operating system with enterprise-class features,
+OpenIndiana Hipster is developed by the community, and for the community.
-
OpenIndiana obtains its name from Project Indiana, an open source effort by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle Corporation) to produce OpenSolaris, a community developed Unix-like distribution based on Sun Solaris.
-Project Indiana was led by Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian Linux Distribution.
+
OpenIndiana obtains its name from Project Indiana, an open source effort
+by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle Corporation) to produce OpenSolaris, a community
+developed Unix distribution based on Sun Solaris. Project Indiana was led by
+Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian Linux distribution.
Some of the differences between OpenIndiana and OpenSolaris can be characterized as follows:
-
-
Sun's OS/NET consolidation (closed by Oracle) has been replaced with illumos-gate.
-
Many of the original OpenSolaris software consolidations have been reorganized into a single oi-userland consolidation.
-
Oracle's Sun Studio has been replaced with the open source GNU GCC compiler.
-
XVM (XEN) has been replaced with the illumos-kvm port.
+
Sun's OS/NET consolidation (closed by Oracle) has been replaced with
+ illumos-gate.
+
Many of the original OpenSolaris software consolidations have been reorganized
+ into a single oi-userland consolidation.
+
Oracle's Sun Studio has been replaced with the open source GNU GCC compiler.
Copy-on-write file system and logical volume manager with extensive data corruption protection, high storage capacities support, efficient data compression, snapshots, and more
In contrast to Linux, illumos is developed as a whole operating system
+with tight coupling between kernel and userspace tools, therefore technologies
+are very well integrated with each other:
+
+
+
When operating system is updated by the IPS package management system,
+ ZFS features like Boot Environment and snapshots are leveraged in every
+ respect of the process.
+
When Global Zone is updated, IPS makes sure, that packages
+ in Zones are updated as well, or, at minimum, are kept in a coherent state.
+
System utilities like pgrep, pkill, ps, ptree, svcprop,
+ and ipmon have -z option, which enables them to operate on a particular Zone without the need
+ to login to the Zone first.
+
The Crossbow network virtualization framework and Role-Based Access Control
+ (RBAC) model frameworks are also very well integrated with the rest of the system.
+
Locality Groups (NUMA affinity) have been provided by the core operating system
+ for many years, contrasting with other systems' reliance on "third-party" libraries.
+
+
+
illumos offers features that have equivalents (Zones are inspired from FreeBSD Jails,
+KVM is ported from Linux), successors (eBPF dynamic tracing), or have been replicated on
+other systems (DTrace, ZFS, Zones, kernel scheduler, slab allocator).
Considering the cross-pollination of technologies with FreeBSD and Linux, our code-base
+had contributed in a notable extent to operating system's innovation. Hence we still strive
+for relevance, observability, and consistency!
The OpenIndiana Project is a community of volunteers and UNIX enthusiasts from around the world.
+
The OpenIndiana Project is a community of volunteers and Unix enthusiasts from around the world.
Currently build servers, hosting and bandwidth is donated by EveryCity hosting in the UK.
Getting Involved
-
Our success as a distribution depends upon the success of our community, which is why we would like to invite all those interested in the future of OpenIndiana to participate and get involved!
+
Because our success as a operating system distribution depends upon the success of our community,
+please, feel welcome in our mailing lists, IRC channels, and GitHub projects.
-
We have many resources from which you can get started, including our Wiki, Mailing Lists and IRC Channel.
-
-
-
For developers we have Vagrant development images which can be easily deployed.
-
For end users we have publicly available IPS repositories for updating your installation with the latest software and security fixes.
-
+
Developers can instantly leverage OpenIndiana Vagrant box
+on Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple macOS via VirtualBox.