Hi, I would like to find out if would be possible to get a word from Google for students interested in porting or developing applications for the OpenSolaris operating system to apply for the summer of code program. Negative results have been noted since the OS project for previous applications. Speaking on behalf of people and students such as myself who are willing to take part in the program as it would help a lot if we know beforehand that it is worth applying for the program to avoid some disappointment for aspiring students who look forward to take part in gsoc under the OpenSolaris Project.
Since the operating system is improving in leaps and bounds especially on hardware support for common hardware - even net-books which run OpenSolaris other operating systems based on the same kernel, user land among other things that provide benefits from project developments. Other examples of these OSs are Milax a small operating that has most of the features that can work with older hardware, Schillix OS, Belenix with a KDE based user space, Nexenta which combines a Ubuntu userland with a OpenSolaris base just as the above mentioned variations of the operating system. The OpenSolaris project is available under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) just as the Firefox/Mozilla browser is based on Mozilla's Public License were users contribute to the project. I have been following the project for a while now for at least five years and it would be ideal to get some idle hands playing around with free OpenSolaris CDs get them to work on a operating system that now - works from notebooks to HPC clusters, ofcourse the operating system has been running on sparc hardware for a while which it continues to do. For students and developers in different situations there's a different take on computing which students will appreciate because they can contribute to the body of computing and probably innovate since there is support within the project's community to make good use of their time, a budding platform with community support for constructive ideas - Please allow me to whisper that working on OpenSolaris is fun, hyper-active typing fingers or those who are too shy to try because of previous failed attempts . The would be situation for prospective contributors would get in the way of progress be it personal development or academic progress - if anyone is to gain from the program it would help when you have a positive take on the big picture of open source software that encompasses the masses that prefer to use established Linux distributions which are in the open source software pool - they wouldn't exist if open minded students and mentors participated in this genre of software that evolves over time. The users of open source software are numerous and varied still Unix is alive and kicking wouldn't it be good if users who aware of what they technology use to contribute to something they can build rather than poke at as esoteric software which runs on stellar hardware now it runs on x86! In the last year OpenSolaris the operating system project has managed to attract a number of users and contributors so much so it has evolved in to a desktop operating system, apart from it's server role that people would expect it to play in most situations. Since there's a good number of projects people can take part in, it would be good to start at some point with hope the project can attract more skilled individuals who can make practical contributions to get collaborative programming experience in the long run. The benefits for students who are willing to commit themselves to the program out-weighs the benefits of not taking part in a open source project of this magnitude - which can attract enough willing developers to contribute to the future of open source software technology. Collaboration only takes one or two willing students who need to know that it's worth applying for to take part freely without having to find a place to fit in for the sake of other projects rather than engaging in focused creative pursuit which happens without attention or supervision from experienced hands and minds who know their development environments well enough to impart knowledge, technique, skill, efficient use of resources made available to the project's community. It would be meaningful to have a broader expert to student paired with student to student participation with Google on board even though some can take on the burden of development alone which does not make sense when there's a community that's willing to help individuals with initiative, I myself can take on a few challenges over time and get some results which don't diminish the meandering pursuits of a open source addict on the fringes of that community - supported collaboration would make a world of difference to would be applicants. Since it's intimidating enough for some applicants to approach a opensource project let alone a large one, it shouldn't stop a number of students who might want to port a few applications relevant to the tech of the day. Below are links that show some notes of progress for the Indiana binary distribution since it's inception in 2004. A page from wikipedia to some detail with some history of the project and currents events http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opensolaris A page from Ditrowatch.com a site that ranks on progress of open source operating systems - the motto being "put the fun back into computing"; http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity To try OpenSolaris can always get a free copy mailed, downloaded or try it online to get http://hub.opensolaris.org/bin/view/Main/TryOpenSolaris
