Hi, I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster but I think I can answer at least some of the questions you have.
>What exactly are Solaris and OpenSolaris? Now, coming from a Linux world I >know Linux is actually just the kernel, and the tools are available from >various sources such as GNU, X.Org, apache and so on. >What about Solaris and OpenSolaris? Is OpenSolaris too just a kernel? What >about the userland then? Short version: Opensolaris is the source code base (like kernel.org); Solaris is a distribution derived from the Opensolaris codebase (there are other distributions, the main one you're probably interested in being Nexenta -which is a port of Debian to OpenSolaris) Long version: Solaris is Unix, and uses the traditional Unix model (which you might be familiar with if you're familiar with how OpenBSD, NetBSD, or FreeBSD work), which is to work on the kernel and the userland programs all together. With the Unix model, the base utilities and kernel are all developed and worked on in the same project and developers. This is different from Linux where you have the kernel, the file utilities, the network utilites, the nfs programs, the compression programs, on and on, all developed by seperate groups of developers. You can think of OpenSolaris as being the base code (like FreeBSD), and Solaris (or Nexenta) as being a distribution based on it (like PCBSD). The main difference is that the BSDs distribute just the programs built with their codebase, and expect you to pick out and chose which additional software you want (using ports or pkgsrc) after installation. In contrast, the Solaris distribution installs the binaries built from the OpenSolaris code base, plus third party programs that aren't part of the OpenSolaris code base (such as star office and cde). In this respect the Solaris distribution is similiar to how Linux distributions work. >Now, let's assume I want to try OpenSolaris. With Linux distros, I am used to >downloading an ISO, burning it, and booting with it. What should I download >here? You can use cds that you got, or you can get solaris express (available from http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/solaris-express/get.jsp . Solaris express has newer OpenSolaris features -a newer version of the "Java Desktop System", among other things) or you can try out the Nextena OpenSolaris distribution (if you're familiar with Debian); Nextena offers a knoppix-like livecd as well as vmware images. If you go with Nextena, you can use apt-get to update to the latest OpenSolaris build. If you're familiar with Debian you might want to try out Nextena. (basically, Nextena is OpenSolaris with the userland utilities replaced with GNU versions; so in essence you end up with Debian on an OpenSolaris kernel instead of the Linux kernel.). >Again, is OpenSolaris a complete distribution by itself, including the kernel >and the user/developer tools? Do I get a Gnome/KDE and a Bash shell at boot >stage? Unlike Linux, Bash isn't the default shell for Solaris, though it's available in /usr/bin. Once you install Solaris, you can choose between CDE (an older desktop, the one that inspired KDE) or the "Java Desktop System". The "Java Desktop System" is essentially a branded version GNOME. >Or is OpenSolaris not a distribution at all, and I am completely mistaken in >my understanding? Opensolaris is the source code base, it's similar to the relationship between FreeBSD and PCBSD (the FreeBSD team works on FreeBSD, the PCBSD team adds on their own packages and makes their distribution based on FreeBSD). >At the SC06 conference Sun handed out Sun Studio CD/DVDs and also Solaris 10 >DVDs. In what way are these Solaris 10 DVDs related to OpenSolaris? The Solaris 10 DVDs are (I'm assuming) built on a snapshot of the OpenSolaris code, and of course have the additional software that comes with the Solaris Distribution (things which Sun either can't opensource -such as CDE- or haven't gotten opensourced yet such as the manpage collection) >Finally, what about support? Again, as a regular Linux user I post queries and >replies in various distribution specific forums/IRC, and in general have a >great opinion about community support. >Do I get something similar with OpenSolaris? And how does one contribute back? For end-user support, you have a few different options; there are newsgroups (alt.x86.solaris and comp.unix.solaris, among others) which are a great wealth of information. You also have the help forum available through opensolaris.org. There's also a yahoo group but I don't remember the name of it offhand. There is an irc channel (#opensolaris on irc.freenode.net), but my impression is it's more developer oriented than anything else. >And how does one contribute back? OpenSolaris has different consolidations, (meaning groups), which tackle different angles of the project; from marketing to programming and a host of other things. I'm not certain about the exact procedure, but I would start by browsing the different consolidations and finding one that you are interested in contributing to, join the list for it and find out what's needed. I know that for submitting code to the codebase you need to find a sponsor, but I don't know if that holds true for all of the consolidations or not. Hope this helps, and good luck! (unrelated sidenote; when I clicked on the 'quote original' button it hung and I wound up cancelling and manually cutting and pasting from his post; so if there was an empty response, that's why). 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