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OpenSolaris A New Star In Open-Source
By: David Utter
Expert Author
2005-06-15
Yesterday, Sun Microsystems opened the 10 million lines of Solaris 10 source code to the development community.
Sun's fulfillment of its promise to open up the Solaris 10 code happened yesterday. The project brings over 1,600 patents to the open-source community, and may be found at OpenSolaris.org.
During a conference call, Sun chief operating officer extolled the virtues of the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). He also took a shot at the General Public License (GPL), calling it "punitive" and claimed that the CDDL "allowed individuals to build products free from any obligations."
One difference between CDDL and GPL lets developers keep their source code secret under CDDL, where the GPL requires changes to be shared publicly. Sun believes its CDDL will be more appealing to corporate projects that do not want to run afoul of GPL terms.
Sun still needs to sort out how it will accept contributions to the source code from outside developers. As previously reported, the company will probably use a peer review process of code submitted through Sun's TeamWare, a product similar to Concurrent Versioning System (CVS).
The company hopes to gain more than just positive PR from the OpenSolaris project. As developers contribute code, Sun plans to incorporate those improvements and new developments into Solaris.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.
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