OpenSolaris

1. About OpenSolaris
   1. Project Overview
   2. FAQ Center
   3. Roadmap
   4. Governing Board
   5. Site Map
2. Communities
   1. Portal
   2. Nevada Community
   3. All Communities
3. Projects
   1. Portal
   2. All Projects
4. Code
   1. Source Browser
   2. Download
   3. Tools
   4. Bug Database
5. Connect
   1. Register
   2. Mail Lists
   3. Jive Forums
   4. Documentation
   5. User Groups
   6. Blogs
   7. Planet
   8. Announcements
   9. Events
   10. News
   11. Related Links

Project Overview

Our principles¹

• The project will evolve in full view of the world. By opening our code, processes, documentation, and historical information to everyone, we offer a real opportunity for others to join our community and contribute from an equal footing. Technical information will be withheld if there are legal restrictions, never because it is incomplete or of poor quality.
• We will be inclusive. Proposals will be evaluated based on technical merit and consistency with overarching design goals, constraints, and requirements.
• We will be respectful and honest. Developers and users have the right to be treated with respect. We do not make ad hominem attacks, and we encourage constructive criticism. Our commitment to civil discourse allows new users and contributors with contrarian ideas an opportunity to be heard without intimidation.
• Quality is always a top priority. The OpenSolaris project will continue the long tradition of quality engineering established by the Solaris Operating System (OS).
• We are independent. Decisions within the project are made independently from those concerning Sun's business. Sun's management controls the business aspects of the Solaris product, but will not exert undue influence within the OpenSolaris community.

What is the OpenSolaris project?

The OpenSolaris project is an open source project sponsored by Sun Microsystems, Inc, that is initially based on a subset of the source code for the Solaris Operating System. It is a nexus for a community development effort where developers from Sun and elsewhere can collaborate on developing and improving operating system technology. The OpenSolaris source code will find a variety of uses, including being the basis for future versions of the Solaris OS product, other operating system projects, and third-party products and distributions.

Initially, the OpenSolaris project will provide the core kernel, libraries and commands that are currently distributed with the Solaris OS. Over time, it is expected that additional parts of the Solaris OS will be made available through the project.

The main difference between the OpenSolaris project and the Solaris Operating System is that the OpenSolaris project does not provide an end-user product or complete distribution. Instead it is an open source code base, build tools necessary for developing with the code, and an infrastructure for communicating and sharing related information. Support for the code will be provided by the community; Sun offers no formal support for the OpenSolaris product in either source or binary form.

The Solaris OS is Sun's operating system distribution and is branded, tested, maintained and supported as a Sun product. Future releases of the Solaris OS will be built from the OpenSolaris source code, but will still be supported in the same manner as current versions of the Solaris OS. At any given time, there may be some software in either the OpenSolaris project or the Solaris OS product that is not present in the other. However, over time the intent is to release as much of the existing source code as possible through the OpenSolaris project and for future development of the source to take place in the OpenSolaris community.

Getting Involved

If you're interested in seeing OpenSolaris thrive, there are lots of ways to get involved. You don't have to be a kernel programmer or spend lots of time to participate:

	Use It Get Solaris Express or any other software distribution which is based on the OpenSolaris code and run it. Get the latest archives to run the most recent OpenSolaris bits. Get the code and learn to build it. If you notice problems, report them! Visit the communities and projectsand meet other users in the discussions. Talk with other community members at these events. Monitor the opensolaris-discussforum.
	Improve It Start by digesting the developer reference. Learn how OpenSolaris works. You can immediately dive into the code. Come hang out on the code, bugs, and RFEs discussions. Join a community to talk about changing an individual OpenSolaris feature. Or start a project to work on the change. Search for bite-sized bugs to fix to get started improving OpenSolaris. Get more details on how to improve OpenSolaris. We are working hard to create a process which will allow anyone to contribute code to OpenSolaris while maintaining the highest possible quality standards. Get involved with the integrated documentation and contribute to test code and initiatives.
	Evangelize Join the marketing discussion Add fan buttons to your site. Help talk about OpenSolaris at various community events.

Hopefully, efforts for and around the OpenSolaris project will continue to grow outside of this website. We're happy to point to community efforts like Blastwave.org, cuddletech, and Sunfreeware.com.

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¹ Thanks to the Debian community for their well-expressed Debian Social Contract. It served as more than just inspiration for our principles.