In the long run, this might be quite feasible, and the CDDL might be more attractive for commercial applications than GPL (although no doubt some might argue that, or even argue that being attractive for commercial applications might not be desirable).
But it seems to me that there are three areas where Linux is 'way ahead for this sort of thing, not to mention that it's already there: * ports: Linux has been ported to just about every CPU big enough to run it. Solaris has SPARC and x86 (plus a once and in blastware perhaps future PowerPC port); and of course SunOS prior to Solaris ran on Motorola 680x0 processors. The first port, esp. to a CPU with substantial differences in interrupt, memory management, I/O, synchronization, or byte order, is the worst; and Solaris is already there. The PowerPC port may prove to be an early test of whether the expertise to port it to new (give or take) CPUs and platforms can be assembled outside of Sun. As such, those truly interested in other ports might want to watch that closely even if it's target platform is quite dissimilar to theirs. * running on very small systems, in a minimal configuration * widespread driver development expertise If there's some PDA-like (or sublaptop/subnotebook) system with an x86 (or compatible) processor, that might allow working on the last two of those areas independent of the first. A lightweight graphics environment as an alternative to X11 would also be important, I think. Presumably something along those lines already exists, and a port of that wouldn't be too difficult. ISTR something called MGR, but haven't heard of anything new with it in a long time. All in all, it's possible, but it would be a lot of work. One would have to have a very strong case that it would definitely be worth the additional work and risk to port OpenSolaris to the platform of interest rather than Linux. This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
