OpenSolaris 2008.11: revolutionary desktop OS

11th December 2008

The community of developers OpenSolaris submitted a new version of its operating system for desktops called OpenSolaris 2008.11.
Though this version is not ready to replace Linux on the desktops so far, we can assume that soon OpenSolaris will be able to become a decent alternative to Linux on many PC. The system OpenSolaris as a desktop version of the Sun Solaris OS emerged from the program Project Indiana. The task of OpenSolaris is combining all the disparate technologies of the platforms Solaris to a single, easy-to-use desktop system.
At the moment OpenSolaris includes not the most extensive, but fully up-to-date set of software: from developing tools to players. Despite the wide range of supported hardware, OpenSolaris is still very far from being perfect. An important innovation in OpenSolaris 2008.11 is tools for working with the file system ZFS. Now the functions to create system snapshots and manipulate these shots are available directly in the file manager Nautilus. OpenSolaris 2008.11 is now equipped with a convenient and comprehensible utility Time Slider Setup, where you can enable or disable the creation of snapshots manually.
A set of applications packages available for automatic installation into OpenSolaris 2008.11, includes 1500 packages. Nevertheless, already now users can establish such applications as Tracker (files search and indexing), Songbird (music player) and Transmission (BitTorrent client). Besides, OpenSolaris 2008.11 contains Mozilla FireFox 3.0 and the most recent version of the graphical shell GNOME 2.24. OpenOffice 3.0 is not included by default, but it can be installed from the main repository via the Internet.
Developing Tools in OpenSolaris are limited to the tools of Sun, and the Python 2.5 environment with basic libraries PyGTK +. The graphic design of the desktop in the new version of OpenSolaris is really great. All interface elements are carefully elaborated.