What is the difference between Sun Solaris and LINUX?

[masaniparesh]

I have googled many similar posts but most of are out dated. Could any one please tell me what is the difference between latest sun solaris and linux architecture? Which one is better? Does Sun Solaris allows to modify the kernel?

Thanks, Paresh

[jayd512]

Hello and Welcome!

The differences are mostly in file system hierarchy and package/resource management.
The latest Solaris ,OpenSolaris, is open source, so therefore you can modify the source. Also, it is freely distributable.
As far as which one is better, that would be open for debate. What are you looking to use it for? What is your level of experience? Linux and Solaris are very stable and scalable, so are adaptable to a variety of tasks.

[techieMoe]

I have googled many similar posts but most of are out dated. Could any one please tell me what is the difference between latest sun solaris and linux architecture? Which one is better? Does Sun Solaris allows to modify the kernel?

Thanks, Paresh

Actually, the differences between Linux and Solaris don't go "out of date." They are still the same differences and will always be the same.

Solaris is a UNIX-based operating system originally designed and sold by Sun Microsystems (generally alongside SPARC server and workstation hardware) that was later ported to work on commodity X86 processors.

The licensing scheme for Solaris has changed from proprietary to sort-of-open-source, but the current license (CDDL) is not the same as the license used for Linux (GPL).

Linux was designed to work similarly to UNIX but has never contained actual UNIX code. It has never been released under a closed-source commercial license and works on several different platforms including X86/X64 and (I believe) SPARC as well.

[chigurh]

I know Solaris 10 (not OpenSolaris) is a certified UNIX product. It's registered, UNIX 03, meaning it is standard UNIX - going by the Single UNIX Specification version 3. Just like Mac OS X Leopard.

[Rubberman]

All the above, and some more... There are actually 2 versions of Solaris. There is OpenSolaris (open source - play all you want), and propietary Solaris (x86 and Sparc versions). I have done a lot of software development for Solaris, including kernel module (device driver) development - it is quite similar to Linux, but different enough to drive one crazy (I'm proof of that). The main thing is that Linux and Solaris are both POSIX compliant, which means that porting applications between the systems is not a major PITA. In any case, Linux and Solaris are very differnt critters under the covers, but the faces they present to the world are very similar since they both run the same x-windows and desktop environments, support a lot of the same tools, and are both suitable for enterprise class server deployments.

[L4Linux]

I know Solaris 10 (not OpenSolaris) is a certified UNIX product. It's registered, UNIX 03, meaning it is standard UNIX - going by the Single UNIX Specification version 3. Just like Mac OS X Leopard.

Mac Leopard has the BSD kernel. So are BSD distributions like OpenBSD considered "certified UNIX". Not that it really matters, I'm just asking for encyclopedic reasons...

[chigurh]

No, not at all.

[chigurh]

opengroup.org/openbrand/register/
Don't have my 15 posts yet ...

[techieMoe]

Was this the general vicinity to which you wanted to link?

The Open Group's UNIX Certification Program

[chigurh]

I meant exactly what I wrote ... not sure what you mean. Just with the http www

also:
news.cnet.com/2100-1016-1015814.html