SunOS, Solaris and Illumos

Tracing their lineage from BSD and System V Unix roots, evolving through strategic shifts in codebase and branding. Here's a structured overview:

BSD-Based SunOS Era (1982–1994)

  • Origins: SunOS 1.0 (1983) emerged from 4.1BSD, powering Sun's early 68000/68010 workstations[1][3]. Key milestones:

  • NFS and RPC: Introduced in SunOS 2.0 (1985), revolutionizing networked computing[1][3].

  • Hybridization: SunOS 3.0 (1986) incorporated System V IPC alongside BSD, reflecting Unix fragmentation[1][3].

  • Final BSD Iteration: SunOS 4.1.4 (1994) marked the last BSD-derived release, supporting SPARC sun4/sun4c/sun4m architectures[1][3].

Transition to System V (1991–1993)

  • SVR4 Foundation: Collaboration with AT&T (1987) led to System V Release 4 adoption[1][4]. SunOS 5.0 (1992) became the core of Solaris 2.0, rebranding BSD-based SunOS 4.x as Solaris 1.x[1][2].

  • Key Changes:

  • Kernel Architecture: Shift from BSD to SVR4 process/tty/streams models.

  • ABI Compatibility: Introduced binary compatibility layers for legacy SunOS 4 apps[1].

Solaris Evolution (1993–2010)

  • Feature Innovations:

  • Solaris 2.4 (1994): Unified SPARC/x86 codebase[2].

  • Solaris 7 (1998): 64-bit support and dropped "2." from versioning[2].

  • Solaris 10 (2005): Introduced ZFS, DTrace, and Service Management Facility (SMF)[2].

  • Open-Source Phase:

  • OpenSolaris (2005–2010): Sun open-sourced Solaris code, creating a community-driven project with Illumos kernel components[^knowledge].

Fork and Legacy (2010–Present)

  • Oracle Acquisition (2010): Discontinued OpenSolaris, leading to:

  • Illumos: Community fork maintaining open-source kernel components, spawning distributions like OmniOS and SmartOS[^knowledge].

  • Oracle Solaris 11 (2011): Proprietary continuation with focus on cloud/enterprise features, latest release 11.4 (2018)[2].

Major Divergences

Aspect
Solaris (Oracle)
Illumos Derivatives

Licensing

Proprietary

Open-Source (CDDL)

Focus

Enterprise/SPARC

Cloud/Linux compatibility

Features

Oracle-specific security

Community-driven updates

Platforms

SPARC/x86

x86/KVM virtualization

Historical Turning Points

  • 1991: SunOS 5/Solaris 2 announcement, marking SVR4 transition[1][4].

  • 2005: OpenSolaris launch, enabling ZFS/DTrace community contributions[^knowledge].

  • 2010: Oracle's OpenSolaris discontinuation and Illumos fork[^knowledge].

  • 2017: Oracle layoffs in Solaris team, reducing development pace[2].

This lineage shows a progression from BSD roots to enterprise System V implementation, followed by open-source experimentation and eventual fragmentation into proprietary/community branches.

Sources [1] SunOS - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SunOS [2] Oracle Solaris - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Solaris [3] SunOS - Computer History Wiki - gunkies.org https://gunkies.org/wiki/SunOS [4] A Brief History of Solaris http://solaris4livin.blogspot.com/2009/11/brief-history-of-solaris.html [5] [PDF] Milestones in the Development of Solaris - filibeto.org https://www.filibeto.org/aduritz/truetrue/solaris10/history_of_solaris.pdf [6] Is OpenSolaris or Illumos anyhow relevant to linux users - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/kjvdp5/is_opensolaris_or_illumos_anyhow_relevant_to/ [7] OpenSolaris - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSolaris [8] Whither OpenSolaris? Illumos Takes Up the Mantle - LinuxInsider https://www.linuxinsider.com/story/whither-opensolaris-illumos-takes-up-the-mantle-76669.html [9] Comparison of OpenSolaris distributions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_OpenSolaris_distributions [10] OpenSolaris - DistrOSList - V A R G U X https://distroslist.vargux.org/index.php/OpenSolaris [11] FreeBSD vs. Illumos https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/freebsd-vs-illumos.92010/ [12] the Illumos eco system - zero-knowledge https://zero-knowledge.org/post/83.html [13] Cleaning Up illumos and Solaris OS Support · Issue #2181 - GitHub https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/issues/2181 [14] UNIX System V - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V [15] The UNIX System -- History and Timeline - UNIX.org https://unix.org/what_is_unix/history_timeline.html [16] UNIX System V - Computer History Wiki - gunkies.org https://gunkies.org/wiki/UNIX_System_V [17] The History Of The Solaris Operating System - SourceTech Systems https://source-tech.net/the-history-of-the-solaris-operating-system/ [18] Unix Family Tree : r/linux - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/huhqrh/unix_family_tree/ [19] What is the difference between BSD, Linux, and Solaris? - Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs/comments/32hda0/what_is_the_difference_between_bsd_linux_and/ [20] [PDF] The History of Solaris https://cse.unl.edu/~witty/class/csce351/howto/history_of_solaris.pdf [21] Community History - SmartOS Documentation https://docs.smartos.org/community-history/ [22] SunOS & Solaris Version History https://web-docs.gsi.de/~kraemer/COLLECTION/SOLARIS/SunOSandSolarisVersionHistory.html [23] A brief history with Solaris - The Trouble with Tribbles... https://ptribble.blogspot.com/2019/10/a-brief-history-with-solaris.html [24] Solaris Operating System - Releases - Oracle https://www.oracle.com/solaris/technologies/releases.html [25] Illumos - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illumos

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