On Mon, 2006-02-27 at 08:38 -0800, tsuraan wrote: > In the installation instructions for Open Solaris, the "Closed > Binaries–OS/Networking (ON) Components" > (on-closed-bins-DATE.PLATFORM.tar.bz2) are listed as a necessary component to > the OpenSolaris system. The name implies (to me at least) that at least part > of the networking code for the kernel isn't open. How does Nexenta get > around this? Are the closed binaries not actually necessary for the full > functionality of the OS, or did Nexenta make their own implementation of > those parts?
AFAIK, Sun Microsystems going to open source everything which is possible over time. Please see the Roadmap on community website. To make completely open source OS, we need to choose wisely. Some parts which are in closed bins today will be open sourced this year, some will not and needs to be re-written. This is not because of Sun Microsystems politics, etc. Sun's goal is clear to me - make every possible software component open sourced. There are some components which copyrighted by third companies, and those components are major problem. But thanks to ABI/API stability of OpenSolaris, those binaries will never cause headaches to the end-user. This is also a huge advantage over GNU/Linux systems, since for Linux kernel, closed source binaries(drivers) are major *headache* for the end-user and a red-flag for many companies who would like to adopt the GNU/Linux system. -- Erast _______________________________________________ GNU/Solaris Users mailing list [email protected]
