The future of Solaris looks vibrant and dynamic, for al branches and leaves of the same tree, including BSD and Linux. Solaris looks forward to a strong community build to help out with the development.

They have to meet the objective that Jonathan Schwartz has set, which is to open source all the software that Sun produces. It is a big challenge because Sun has such an extensive software portfolio; a great operating system, server software that business depends on, a portal server, software that does identity management and helps manage security.

Sun Microsystems will make additions to Solaris 10 as part of work on the 7-month-old Open Solaris project as well as through internal development. Already, 71 proposed additions have been generated via the Open Solaris initiative. They include a wireless driver for x86 platforms. “We’ll use the same rigorous test process as always” with the open source additions, says executive VP John Loiacono.

Sun developers also are working on ZFS, a 128-bit file system with increased error-detection and correction capabilities for the next Solaris 10 release, due within six months. A self-correcting file system simplifies management of large storage systems. In addition, Solaris’ ability to host virtual machines will be enhanced to include Red Hat Linux VMs under Solaris 10.