Illumos
Free software operating system based on Solaris From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Illumos (stylized as "illumos") is a partly free and open-source Unix operating system.[3] It has been developed since 2010 and is based on OpenSolaris, after the discontinuation of that product by Oracle. It comprises a kernel, device drivers, system libraries, and utility software for system administration. Its core has become the base for many different open-sourced Illumos distributions,[4] in a way similar to how the Linux kernel is used in different Linux distributions.[5]
| |
| Developer | Illumos Foundation |
|---|---|
| Written in | C |
| OS family | Unix (SVR4)[1] |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source with binary blobs |
| Initial release | 2010 |
| Repository | |
| Available in | English |
| Platforms | IA-32, x86-64, SPARC, ARM (under development),[2] DEC Alpha |
| Kernel type | Monolithic |
| License | CDDL, BSD, MIT |
| Preceded by | OpenSolaris |
| Official website | illumos |
Name
The maintainers write illumos in lowercase,[6] since some computer fonts do not clearly distinguish a lowercase L from an uppercase i: Il (see homoglyph).[7] The project name is a combination of words illuminare from the Latin for to light, and OS for Operating System.[8]
History and development
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Perspective
Illumos was announced via webinar on 3 August 2010,[9] as a community effort of a group of core Solaris engineers to create a truly open source Solaris, by swapping closed source bits of OpenSolaris with open implementations.[10][11][12] OpenSolaris itself is based on System V Release 4 (SVR4) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).
The original plan explicitly stated that Illumos would not be a distribution or a fork. However, after Oracle announced the discontinuation of OpenSolaris, plans were made to fork the final version of the Solaris ON kernel,[a] allowing Illumos to evolve into a kernel of its own.[13] As of 2010[update], efforts focused on libc, the NFS lock manager, the crypto module, and many device drivers, to create a Solaris-like OS with no closed, proprietary code. As of 2012[update], development emphasis includes transitioning from the historical compiler, Studio, to GCC.[14] The "userland" software is now built with GNU make,[15] and contains many GNU utilities such as GNU tar. At the time,[clarification needed] Illumos had been lightly led by founder Garrett D'Amore and other community members/developers such as Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, via a Developers' Council.[16]
As of 2019 its primary development project, illumos-gate, derives from OS/Net (aka ON),[17] which is a Solaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities, similar to what is delivered by a BSD "src" tree. It was originally dependent on OpenSolaris OS/Net, but a fork was made after Oracle silently decided to close the development of Solaris and unofficially killed the OpenSolaris project.[18][19][20]
Features
- ZFS, a combined file system with integrated logical volume management, providing a high level of data integrity for very large storage capacities.
- Solaris Containers (or Zones), a low overhead implementation of operating-system-level virtualization technology for x86 and SPARC systems.[clarification needed]
- DTrace, a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time.
- Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), a virtualization infrastructure. KVM supports native virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions.
- OpenSolaris Network Virtualization and Resource Control (or Crossbow), a set of features that provides an internal network virtualization and quality of service including: virtual NIC (VNIC) pseudo-network interface technology, exclusive ip zones, bandwidth management, and flow control on a per interface and per VNIC basis.
Distributions
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Perspective
Distributions, at illumos.org[21]
- NexentaStor, distribution optimized for virtualization, storage area networks, network-attached storage, and iSCSI or Fibre Channel applications employing the ZFS file system.
- OmniOS Community Edition, takes a minimalist approach suitable for server use.[22]
- OpenIndiana, a distribution that is a continuation and fork in the spirit of the OpenSolaris operating system.
- SmartOS, a distribution for cloud computing with Kernel-based Virtual Machine integration.
- Helios, a distribution powering the Oxide Computer Rack.[23]
- Tribblix, retro style distribution with modern components, available for x86-64 and SPARC.[24]
- v9os, a server-only, IPS-based minimal SPARC distribution.[25]
- XStreamOS, a distribution for infrastructure, cloud, and web development.[26]
Discontinued:
Illumos Foundation
The Illumos Foundation was incorporated in the State of California in 2012 as a 501(c)6 trade association, with founding board members Jason Hoffman (formerly at Joyent), Evan Powell (Nexenta), and Garrett D'Amore. As of 2024, its status in California is "dissolved".[29]
Notes
References
External links
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