Kim Tingk?r writes:
> I was wondering, is there no cross compatibility with S10 at all? Or are 
> there restrictions on what base code can be changes in opensolaris so that 
> some cross compatibility remains?

The restriction is fairly simple: unless otherwise specified, no core
OS package from any part of any release of Solaris or OpenSolaris is
supported on any other release of Solaris or OpenSolaris.

This is just a restriction on the core OS packages.

For third party packages, something compiled on an old release of
Solaris will install and run on a new release.  We support
compatibility for third-party applications, not for random hunks of
the OS implementation itself.

> I mean wont it, if opensolaris branches off to far, present a problem porting 
> futur software to S10? I kind of understood from the "Project Overview" page 
> that opensolaris somehow is a platform for developing new functionality for 
> S10... Or have i got it all wrong?

The issues aren't really related.  The issue here is that you can't
take a core part of the OS implementation and install it on a
different release of the OS and expect that to work.

Applications developed on S10 will work on OpenSolaris-based
releases.  And something developed on (say) S7 will work on S8, S9,
S10, and so on.

As for the web page you're looking at, I think that's a marketing
position paper.  The idea is that OpenSolaris-based distributions are
friendlier for developers, so you should do your work there and then
recompile on S10.  Binary compatibility actually works in the other
direction, though -- applications from old releases work on new ones,
not the reverse.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive        71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677

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