Sun Microsystems is set to license OpenSolaris under the upcoming GNU General Public License Version 3 in addition to the existing Common Development and Distribution License ...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895...MNL011507EP28A

Sun was also giving out free Solaris 10 and media kit DVDs on its site. I "ordered" some but Solaris looks too scary to use a desktop OS. I'd try it for a non-multimedia workstation I guess?

I wonder how much of a community will get behind OpenSolaris and Sun's ultimate goal?

I'm using Solaris as a desktop (latest Solaris Express), and frankly, I don't find it "scary" nor missing anything essential to my use. What are the issues you had ?
will ? The community is already there and raising.
It's explained in the FAQ:

Why did Sun open source the Solaris OS?
There are several reasons behind the decision to open source the Solaris OS:

• A community development model creates opportunities for collaboration between Sun and the Solaris developer and user community.
• Many Solaris OS customers care about and require open source.
• It allows Sun and its partners to participate in more projects that require open source software.
• Open sourcing creates a platform for a whole new generation of innovation by allowing developers to leverage the Solaris technology for their own purposes.
• It opens up opportunities in new markets for Solaris: for example, startups can now build a product around the OpenSolaris technology.

Hey thanks for addressing my concerns.

I guess I say scary because I'm barely getting my feet wet with Linux and would feel technically inept/dumb to run Solaris as an everyday OS.

Still, I love Sun's StarOffice and the polished look and feel of the Java desktop (from what I've seen in screenshots) so it's tempting.

Is there a Solaris Live Cd with the Java desktop available (i.e. not belenix)?

I haven't tried it [yet] but I've been scared away by people telling me hardware support is even more scarce than Linux (considering Solaris runs on so many platforms, but ok maybe they meant peripherals?)and it's harder to get all the usual proprietary multimedia codecs to work.

Ignoring the naysayers while not going offtopic, I'd appreciate it if you maybe private messaged me or posted the differences/similarities between Linux and Solaris and pros/cons.

Still, I'm curious as to what other people may think is Sun's ultimate goal in addition to what Sun says it is (eventually aiming more at desktop users? etc)

I think it would be great if they offered a home-user tailored version of Solaris. In fact I e-mailed them asking them about Solaris' suitability as a home OS (no response yet).


Hope I cleared things up.



edit: speaking of clearing things up, I went and did a little homework on it and answered some of my own questions (in terms of why JDS isn't in Belenix and hardware compatibility), still, I'm interested in your experience with Solaris as a desktop OS.

There is unfortunately none.
You are correct, but Solaris is catching up steadily on this.
Not sure about it. Actually proprietary and GPL/Gnu/Linux do not fit together very much either.
The subject is very wide and can't be answered in a few words, but they have much more similarities than differences, especially from the end-user, non technical side.
Well, historically, Sun more or less created the Unix Workstation concept, so focusing again on it is just going back to the source.
Here is the most detailed answer to that question: http://www.opensolaris.org/os/projec.../desktop_gaps/
As I already wrote, Solaris is perfectly suiting my needs as a desktop, but my experience differs from mainstream users one. My desktops have almost always been based on Unix or Unix like O/Ses since more than 20 years. I only marginally and reluctantly use Windows, and dislike it a lot ...