Oracle signals an end to OpenSolaris

13.08.2010
Oracle appeared to confirm this week what many in the computer industry already suspected: The OpenSolaris project is dead.

Oracle laid out its Solaris strategy in an internal memo that was on Friday. It says Oracle's efforts are focused on a commercial Solaris release that will help expand the sale of its servers and other products.

"All of Oracle's efforts on binary distributions of Solaris technology will be focused on Solaris 11," the memo states. "We will not release any other binary distributions, such as nightly or bi-weekly builds of Solaris binaries, or an OpenSolaris 2010.05 or later distribution."

Solaris 11 is the next major update to the Solaris operating system, which Oracle will be released next year.

Oracle will release a free developer edition of Solaris 11 later this year, called Solaris 11 Express, which will come with an optional support plan, the memo says. It hopes to persuade companies using OpenSolaris today to switch to Solaris 11 Express, and presumably to Solaris 11 in the future.

A spokesman for Oracle said the company declined to comment.