OpenSolaris, licensing, rumors and more
Right on the heels from the MOSUG meeting we had tonight I have something interesting to share with you. Mostly it relates to the most hot topics regarding the future of OpenSolaris, Solaris licensing and support. And so…
- As you’ve already heard or read in the mailing lists the latest OpenSolaris build has been frozen and eventually will become the so much anticipated next OpenSolaris release, presumably 2010.05
- As a developer or an ordinary user or whoever your are, you are welcome to download and use Solaris OS for free unless it’s not used for the production or any commercial purposes. There is a drawback, no patches available even security ones.
- There is no way to purchase a Solaris license only. Oracle doesn’t sell them. As of today, because tomorrow could bring something new, you could obtain Solaris license in different ways:
- By purchasing the system as a whole from Oracle. In that case you’re going to receive a technical support from Oracle directly.
- By buying the hardware and Solaris from third-party vendor, e.g. HP, IBM or DELL, but in that case the technical support would by provided by the same thrid-party vendors. That means, that if you buy a system with Solaris from HP then pester them in case of any issues.
- Tried to ask about recently spread Oracle-LSI rumors but didn’t receive a definite answer. Think that due to the Oracle’s policy so we will have to play a “wait and see” game.
- As far as I understood, Oracle is not going to make Oracle on Sun hardware cheeper than Oracle on HP iron and the bill will mostly be equivalent. But TCO and ROI would be more attractive in case of Sun/Oracle symbiosis.