OpenSolaris Project: ARM Platform Port

You can now download the first release of the ARM plattform port of OpenSolaris. Yes … ARM … these small embedded CPUs. You can look at the Installation Guide at the opensolaris.org website. I think this is an important step to see OpenSolaris on small appliances like routers. The availability of such a port could have some interesting effects: The CDDL doesn´t mandate, that you have to share your extensions to OpenSolaris. You have just to share the modifications on existing code licensed under the CDDL. This is contrary to the model of the GPL. So this could be useful for appliance manufacturers who don´t want to share certain components of their extensions (like the internals of their hardware that were used in the driver development). With the usage of OpenSolaris they could prevent this. One factor that prevented a large uptake of OpenSolaris in this market was the missing port to a low-energy, low-price embedded plattform. But with the ARM port of OpenSolaris there is now an port to such a plattform. It will be really interesting to observe this development. One thing is for sure (at least in my opinion) … we will see more Home/SOHO-NAS devices with ZFS due to the availability of the results of this project :)