Illumos

Illumos
Developer	Illumos Foundation
Written in	C
OS family	Unix (SVR4) [1]
Working state	Current
Source model	Open source with binary blobs
Initial release	2010;15 years ago (2010)
Repository	github.com/illumos
Available in	English
Supported platforms	IA-32, x86-64, SPARC, ARM (under development), [2] DEC Alpha
Kernel type	Monolithic
License	CDDL, BSD, MIT
Preceded by	OpenSolaris
Official website	illumos.org

Illumos (stylized as "illumos") is a partly free and open-source Unix operating system. ^[3] It has been developed since 2010 and is based on OpenSolaris, after the discontinuation of that product by Oracle. It comprises a kernel, device drivers, system libraries, and utility software for system administration. Its core has become the base for many different open-sourced Illumos distributions, ^[4] in a way similar to how the Linux kernel is used in different Linux distributions. ^[5]

Name

The maintainers write illumos in lowercase, ^[6] since some computer fonts do not clearly distinguish a lowercase L from an uppercase i: Il (see homoglyph). ^[7] The project name is a combination of words illuminare from the Latin for to light, and OS for Operating System. ^[8]

History and development

The OpenIndiana operating system is one of many Illumos distributions.

Illumos was announced via webinar on 3 August 2010, ^[9] as a community effort of a group of core Solaris engineers to create a truly open source Solaris, by swapping closed source bits of OpenSolaris with open implementations. ^{[10] [11] [12]} OpenSolaris itself is based on System V Release 4 (SVR4) and the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD).

The original plan explicitly stated that Illumos would not be a distribution or a fork. However, after Oracle announced the discontinuation of OpenSolaris, plans were made to fork the final version of the Solaris ON kernel, ^[a] allowing Illumos to evolve into a kernel of its own. ^[13] As of 2010 ^[update] , efforts focused on libc, the NFS lock manager, the crypto module, and many device drivers, to create a Solaris-like OS with no closed, proprietary code. As of 2012 ^[update] , development emphasis includes transitioning from the historical compiler, Studio, to GCC. ^[14] The "userland" software is now built with GNU make, ^[15] and contains many GNU utilities such as GNU tar. At the time,^{[ clarification needed ]} Illumos had been lightly led by founder Garrett D'Amore and other community members/developers such as Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal, via a Developers' Council. ^[16]

As of 2019 its primary development project, illumos-gate, derives from OS/Net (aka ON), ^[17] which is a Solaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities, similar to what is delivered by a BSD "src" tree. It was originally dependent on OpenSolaris OS/Net, but a fork was made after Oracle silently decided to close the development of Solaris and unofficially killed the OpenSolaris project. ^{[18] [19] [20]}

Features

• ZFS, a combined file system with integrated logical volume management, providing a high level of data integrity for very large storage capacities.
• Solaris Containers (or Zones), a low overhead implementation of operating-system-level virtualization technology for x86 and SPARC systems.^{[ clarification needed ]}
• DTrace, a comprehensive dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems on production systems in real time.
• Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), a virtualization infrastructure. KVM supports native virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions.
• OpenSolaris Network Virtualization and Resource Control (or Crossbow), a set of features that provides an internal network virtualization and quality of service including: virtual NIC (VNIC) pseudo-network interface technology, exclusive ip zones, bandwidth management, and flow control on a per interface and per VNIC basis.

Distributions

See also: OpenSolaris § Derivatives, Solaris (operating system) § Open source derivatives, and Comparison of OpenSolaris distributions

Distributions, at illumos.org ^[21]

• DilOS, with Debian package manager (dpkg + apt) and virtualization support, available for x86-64 and SPARC. ^[22]
• NexentaStor, distribution optimized for virtualization, storage area networks, network-attached storage, and iSCSI or Fibre Channel applications employing the ZFS file system.
• OmniOS Community Edition, takes a minimalist approach suitable for server use. ^[23]
• OpenIndiana, a distribution that is a continuation and fork in the spirit of the OpenSolaris operating system.
• SmartOS, a distribution for cloud computing with Kernel-based Virtual Machine integration.
• Helios, a distribution powering the Oxide Computer Rack. ^[24]
• Tribblix, retro style distribution with modern components, available for x86-64 and SPARC. ^[25]
• v9os, a server-only, IPS-based minimal SPARC distribution. ^[26]
• XStreamOS, a distribution for infrastructure, cloud, and web development. ^[27]

Discontinued:

• Dyson, derived from Debian using libc, and SMF init system.
• OpenSXCE, distribution for developers and system administrators for IA-32/x86-64 x86 platforms and SPARC. ^[28]

Illumos Foundation

The Illumos Foundation was incorporated in the State of California in 2012 as a 501(c)6 trade association, with founding board members Jason Hoffman (formerly at Joyent), Evan Powell (Nexenta), and Garrett D'Amore.

As of 2024, its status in California is "dissolved". ^[29]

Notes

1. The "OS/Network" consolidation (project), considered the heart of the Solaris kernel

References

1. "Open Brand". www.opengroup.org.
2. Clulow, Joshua (25 October 2012). "Raspberry Pi Bring-Up". illumos Foundation. Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
3. "Building illumos". illumos.org. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
4. "Distributions".
5. Blankenhorn, Dana. "What Illumos is and is not". ZDNet.
6. "FAQ". illumos. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
7. Mustacchi, Robert (5 September 2015). "Linux to SmartOS cheatsheet, after smartos-discuss vetting, sans deritus [sic]. by cwvhogue - Pull Request #217". GitHub . Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
8. "Announcement". illumos.org. 15 June 2018.
9. D'Amore, Garrett (3 August 2010). "illumos - Hope and Light Springs Anew - Presented by Garrett D'Amore" (PDF). illumos.org. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
10. "Whither OpenSolaris? illumos Takes Up the Mantle". 20 November 2012. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015.
11. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "OpenIndiana, Illumos, and the OpenSolaris Community (Part 1)". 5 May 2011 – via YouTube.
12. D'Amore, Garrett (27 October 2010). "New illumos logo" . Retrieved 14 November 2013.
13. D'Amore, Garrett (13 August 2010). "The Hand May Be Forced" . Retrieved 14 November 2013.
14. https://www.openindiana.org/documentation/faq/#how-does-openindiana-differ-from-opensolaris Archived 13 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine "Oracle’s Sun Studio has been replaced with the open source GNU GCC compiler."
15. "OpenIndiana/oi-userland". GitHub. 28 October 2021.
16. Straughan, Deirdré (16 May 2012). "illumos Developers' Council Meeting". illumos.org. Archived from the original on 10 July 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2012.
17. "os-net-skeleton". bitbucket.org. Archived from the original on 29 July 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
18. "Oracle staff report big layoffs across Solaris, SPARC teams". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
19. "OpenSolaris axed by Ellison". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
20. "illumos sporks OpenSolaris". www.theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
21. "Distributions - illumos". illumos.org.
22. "DilOS". www.dilos.org. Archived from the original on 21 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
23. "OmniOS CE". omniosce.org. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
24. "Helios". github.com/oxidecomputer/helios. Retrieved 14 April 2025.
25. "Tribblix". www.tribblix.org. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
26. "v9os". milax.fi. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
27. "XStreamOS". Sonicle. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
28. "OpenSXCE". www.opensxce.org. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
29. State of California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General. Registry of Charities and Fundraisers. Accessed December 17, 2024.

External links

• Official website
• napp-it, a ZFS web interface for Illumos-based NAS or SAN appliances.